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Black Box
By Anne Lavaud
Black owes a great deal to the fashions of the 20th century. During this period, it shed some of its image as the colour of mourning and invited itself to society cocktail parties as the height of luxury. Coco Chanel's little black dress and Yves Saint Laurent’s trouser suit for the liberated woman are its leading ambassadors!
Since then, black has done a balancing act without ever disappointing. It's still the colour of authority when worn by a lawyer, a judge, a priest, or when it encircles the waist of an experienced judo fighter; it's involved in politics with anarchists and fascists. Rockers' jackets, the future viewed by punks, the nails and eyes of Goths redefine its rebellious side while laying claim to the distress that it provokes. As a player, it opposes the red of hearts and diamonds with spades and clubs, but faces off against the whites in draughts and chess. Finally, on the roulette table, it's even or passes when the wheel goes round and round!
Contradictory and paradoxical, black is crossing the threshold into the 21st century as king. Does it represent the spirit of our times? Does it symbolise a form of decadence specific to western civilisation?
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Designers love it. And with good reason! Only black expresses elegance, timelessness and strength all at the same time, without losing originality. No two blacks are alike: since they absorb colour, light creates diverse effects. Moreover, black doesn't outshine anyone and easily goes with everything. There’s nothing special about the creative inspiration that it generates if we are to believe historical scholars who report that in every religion black harks back to the darkness of our origins before the Creation.
Furthermore, in psychoanalytic terms, the colour black symbolises waiting and, as such, has a strong potential, perhaps even hope. So, if we look at it this way, it becomes a sign of gestation, of the unconscious at work, of a primitive instinct that should be directed towards higher objectives. And because nothing is left to chance in the arts, musical composition relies on quarter notes to set the tempo!
In luxury marketing in general, and packaging in particular, black confers a premium positioning. Who can count all the "Carte Noire" versions, from coffees to whiskies, not to mention the cases of the numerous make-up ranges put out by the big names in the business, which alternate black and gold to sublimate their bulk colours? In perfumes, black is mostly suited to masculine fashion, due to the spirit of seriousness and the feeling of strength that it confers. All the same, some designers have fun with it by bevelling it, like Dupont, or by lacquering it on the inside, as Narciso Rodriguez has done.
When it's used for women, it represents a real break, as with Tom Ford, or the ‘dark side’ of Givenchy’s Ange ou Démon, or even mystery, for Guerlain’s L'Instant Magic. Finally, while white in all its forms is still the rule in women’s skincare, black is making a significant breakthrough with the forerunners of skincare for men: Givenchy, Shiseido and Guerlain's Terracota.
One thing is certain; black's silent reputation isn't preventing it from making a lot of noise!
The Codes of Black
| Association | Affective | darkness, mysteries, sadness |
| Objective | dark, death, nothingness | |
| Effects | Psychological | sadness |
| Physiological | rest | |
| Physical | dark, solid | |
| Character | imaginative, unsavoury | |
| Symbols | Religious | final judgement |
| Profane | mourning | |
| Connotations | Positive | distinction, elegance, nobility, obscurity, solemnity, slimming |
| Negative | death, illness, despair, regret, hell, fear, sadness, melancholy, obscurity, darkness |
Originally published in Formes de Luxe No. 63, March 2008. Reproduced by kind permission.