Black in Fashion: AnOther's Top Ten Quotes

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Yohji Yamamoto in AnOther Magazine A/W06
Yohji Yamamoto in AnOther Magazine A/W06Photography by Horst Diekgerdes, Styling by Jane How

As Halloween approaches, we pick our top ten quotes about the most bewitching shade on the colour chart

Black. Colour of mystery and mortality, Anna Wintour hates it, while Abercrombie & Fitch banned employees from wearing it in their stores. For many though, black continues to be the anchor of style; a celebrated Gothicism and wardrobe staple.

The supposed ‘non-colour’ traces back to Neolithic cave paintings – now it is everywhere. It is the highest ranking ball on the snooker table. It sweeps throughout music, from Fleetwood Mac’s magic woman to Jay Z’s eponymous album, while The Rolling Stones told us to paint in it. In 1861, when Prince Albert died, Queen Victoria took to wearing black as everyday dress. Her decision to sport widows weeds resonated into everyday fashion, as people reconfigured her mourning into fashion. Subsequently it became the uniform of Coco Chanel, the beatniks and Johnny Cash.

For many designers, black is their mainstay: Gareth Pugh, Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo all ground their collections in the inky hue, while Grace Coddington hardly wears anything else. To mark the approach of Halloween and the latest exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Victorian and Edwardian mourning attire, we pick our ten favourite fashion quotes on black.

1. “You can wear black at any time. You can wear it at any age. You may wear it for almost any occasion.” —  Christian Dior

2. “Women who wear black live colourful lives.” — Neiman Marcus

3. “Black is modest and arrogant at the same time. Black is lazy and easy — but mysterious. But above all black says this: I don’t bother you — don’t bother me.” —  Yohji Yamamoto

4. “I love black because it affirms, designs and styles. A woman in a black dress is a pencil stroke.” — Yves Saint Laurent

5. “I work in three shades of black.” —  Rei Kawakubo

6. “I’ll stop wearing black when they invent a darker colour.” —  Wednesday Addams

7. “Black is not sad. Bright colours are what depress me. They’re so... empty. Black is poetic. How do you imagine a poet? In a bright yellow jacket? Probably not.” —  Ann Demeulemeester

8. “I think in black.” — Gareth Pugh

9. “There’s something about black. You feel hidden away in it.” —  Georgia O’Keeffe

10. “I’ve been 40 years discovering that the queen of all colours was black.” — Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Death Becomes Her is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art until February 2015.