Ever since I started as an image consultant in 1991, one of the hottest topics when I do colour analysis is whether or not the client can wear black - and the subject is never hotter than with women clients. Indeed, the issue has been such that for the first twelve years of my career I never wore black to work in. (For me, who has always worn black well because of my colouring and was confident enough as a teenager to defy all suggestions that it was too old a colour for me this was some undertaking).
It has been suggested by various experts and several image companies to the delight of many that black can be worn by any woman - and indeed it can, but not if they want to look good! Am I a rebel or a realist? You can decide but I can only say that in my opinion black does not look equally good on every woman and some would be better of avoiding it altogether in favour of something that does suit them.
Yes, I appreciate the argument that it is a slimming colour and makes the wearer feel slimmer but I would counter that with the fact that if black is too strong a colour for the wearer, then the very area that she is wishing to slim can be highlighted as those looking at her zero in on the stronger coloured area. And, that the slimmer look would be wearing the darker shades in her palette of colours - for fair haired, light skinned blue eyed women this could be navy or grey, for red haired, freckly olive skinned ladies this could be brown.
I also accept that the shops do display a lot of black for us to buy, and particularly in evening wear it can be difficult to find other colours. My answer would be that yes it may be difficult, but not impossible and anyway whoever said that looking good was easy? I don't know a woman who looks good in what she wears on a regular basis and appears to have style and panache when choosing her clothes who doesn't either put a lot of work in herself or alternatively hire someone like me to do it for her. I was interested to see on one of the dragons from BBC's Dragons Den programme Deborah Meden has enlisted the help of someone to select clothes for her, saving herself hours of shopping.
I know that black can appear sophisticated and can look expensive but so can charcoal and be a lot more becoming to a person's complexion. And conversely black can also be seen as strong and off putting.
And as for black shoes - I have sorted wardrobes where the client has 20 different pair of shoes - all black, even for someone who wears black well - that's a lot! Nowadays it's possible to buy shoes in a myriad of colours and anybody who's tried taupe shoes will know that they go with everything. For our fair haired example above, she might try these instead of black and for the red head what about brown?
It seems to me that most people, men and women have at some time bought something black and that it will remain a hot topic for some time to come, but I'd encourage people who aren't sure that black is for them to try something else - in fact anything else because for those of us affected by what others wear seeing someone in black, which is pretty much the strongest colour there is, when it doesn't suit them because their colouring is not as strong can be a massive let down. It is true, you never get a second chance to make a first impression!
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Cindy Rossiter has been a Nottinghamshire award winning consultant with Colour Me Beautiful in the U.K. since 1991.
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