Blurb: This article is written by Best (LL.B.06), Sanyakrit Ngamkerdsiri. The author had indicated the perspective toward “Black” color in each period of human history with the interesting different interpretations.
After I passed my teenage years, many changes happened within my wardrobe since I had the opportunity to choose the clothes and fashion accessories I wish to wear. During those years of high school, I was really into rock music, which made me buy many black clothes and brand jerseys (which are usually black) to wear whenever I go to concerts or in my daily life. Once I opened my wardrobe again, I now realized that the day of a colorful wardrobe is gone. Now what I can see is nothing but many pieces of black fabric. Until this day, I usually wear black clothes because I always felt comfortable wearing them. After I did some desktop search about the use of this color, I also found out that black is also a color that never goes out of trend. This brings me a curiosity about the use of black color in fashion throughout human history, and why it is the timeless color in fashion.
Black may not be considered a color in the first place if color is defined as a sensation of objects generated by light and reflected in your eye since black is merely an object that absorbs all color and reflects voidness back to your eye. This means black objects are objects that absorb all light and are in the state of absence of color. Still, if we do not apply complicated scientific theory to defining what color is, we can still view black as a color. Nevertheless; due to black’s scientific properties and nature, people associated black with voidness and darkness which often represented evils, despair, secret, deaths, and mysteries. On the other hand, the positive association of black is that it represents sophistication, power, formality, and certainty. For example, the high-ranked senior student in each Tae Kwon Do school signifies their expertise and maturity. In addition, in the sense of design, black is an unambiguous color and is rarely misunderstood.
As one of the oldest colors found being used throughout human history, black color is used on various occasions and associated with many concepts. During ancient and medieval times, to dry the black fabric, people would need to burn coal or asphalt. This drying process was not able to dry deep black yet, so the actual color at that time was either brown or gray. During these times, black was associated with death, voidness, and eternal sleep, people wore black as a sign of mourning, and have continued to do so until the contemporary day.
Apart from mourning purposes, black was not really usual to wear yet as people still associated this color with death and devil. However, black made a remarkable step in fashion since it started to play a huge role in the fashion of Christian monks. In the twelfth century, Benedictines monks favored black and wore black habits which symbolize penance, humility, and the promise to live in accordance with the religious law. Nonetheless, the Cistercian monks did not favor black habits and still had negative perceptions toward the use of black. They believed that black depicts devils, death, and darkness where life cannot exist. So, they instead wore white to represent innocence and purity.
As time passed, the new technology to dry high-quality black was developed during the late 14th century. This development finally made the process of drying black to the piece of fabric to be even and no longer turning brown or gray after the process anymore. However, the arrival of the finest black clothes did not increase the use of black clothes by every person in the social hierarchy since the cost of drying deep black clothes was still expensive. At this time, many European states implemented the Sumptuary laws which restricted colored clothes to nobility. Therefore, the evenly black dried clothes were limited to the men of power who were not born with nobility such as rich merchants, academics, bankers, lawyers, and judges since these people were wealthy enough to afford them and decided to wear them to show off their wealthiness and signify their social significance. Since then, the monarchies and nobilities over Europe started to take notice and adopted the black style as well.
Although the popularity of black faded for a few centuries, the romanticist influence during the early 19th century brought black clothes to life again. People started to wear black for nightlife and special occasions and celebrations. Men started to wear black suits or tuxedos to go to parties, while every woman owned a little black dress. After the industrial revolution, black became the color of the uniform of every social class worn by people ranging from normal postmen to the rich businessmen.
In the age where fast fashion became the key characteristic of contemporary fashion and people usually have short-term relationships with their own clothes or accessories, black clothes and accessories remain in a position that was really not affected by this characteristic of modern fashion. In another word, black can be described as a color that will never go out of style. To be more specific, it will be really rare to find people who do not own any black clothes or fashion accessories in their wardrobe. In the contemporary world, every person owns black for different reasons and functions.
These functions include the use in a formal occasion, everyday wearing, and the use as an expression of rebellion or characteristic of subculture. For example, people may buy a black suit for a professional meeting or buy a black t-shirt for their everyday life since it can easily match with other clothes they already own. The bikers or rock stars may own black leather jackets to express their own ideologies. To act rebellious, the mobs or the anarchists wear black to represent their resentment toward the governing authorities.
The use of black in fashion truly has a long history and fascinating journal. People's upon wearing black has changed through the change of time. In the early days of civilization, black can be viewed as a taboo color to wear until some priests thought of it as the symbol of humility. Once people found out how to dry with the finest quality, it became a symbol of wealth and power since they were expensive. Now black is the color of everyday life which carries many functions with them, and it is interesting to know what will be the future of black color.
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