The New Black

I’m not even planning to discuss black, defined as the absence of colour. That’s not a colour, it’s not on my radar at all. I don’t wear black, (I don’t have a corporate wardrobe at all) and I don’t even use black stones very much.

But the new black, ah that’s different. Along with prison pink and greenery, by jove they’ve done it again! The new black isn’t black – it can be anything they tell you it should be!!!!!! At first it was quite simple to grasp…”NAVY IS THE NEW BLACK.” You can see the thinking behind that. Navy is a staple, a basic, a base. It’s useful and can do most of the things that black can do. It’s slimming, forgiving, smart, simple, a foil for other colours, wearable. It allowed the fashion industry to flog more stuff, all in the name of newness, of keeping up, of staying abreast, of staying in the game. But then it got seriously out of hand. “Grey is the new black.” Oh really? Ok, Grey can be quite dark so I can see where they’re coming from. But then all of a sudden Taupe was the new black. Really? Taupe? Hang on this isn’t just out of hand anymore, this is just downright silly. Grey can be many shades, as can Navy and these colours can do pretty much what black can, to maybe lesser degrees, so I can see where there coming from, but Taupe? Interestingly I don’t ever remember brown being badged as the new black. Maybe they did that in the seventies but forgot to give it the catchy tag line, so it went unnoticed as a fashion ploy.

The best one I ever heard was the hopefully tongue in cheek “ White is the new black”. That one made me laugh out loud, the sincere statement that something other than black can replace black. I can see what they’re trying to do, wean us off our collective obsession with black

White is the new black, although perhaps what they really mean is that the presence of colour replaces the absence of colour.

Now that might make sense. Maybe?