The New Black

I was walking around the mall today (as I do 3-4 times a week these days) admiring all the new fall fashions and quietly beckoning the cool air to come visit so that I can wear my new cashmere sweater (it was on major sale, I swear!). Most everything in the stores was varying shades of pine, teal and eggplant. And then it struck me—these hot new colors weren’t paired with chocolate brown. The multitudes of basics (pants, skirts, shoes) were all displayed in varying shades of black. Black?!?

Let me take a time out to explain a simple fact about the fashion, for those that need to be enlightened (as my sweet, yet clueless fiancé needed to be). When a color is said to be “the new black” it means it is the “it” color, the color that just has to be had for the season. It’s the color with which every other color goes, and every basic line of clothing will surely include that color. In recent years, brown has been the new black. Chocolate and espresso could be seen in every store and on every catalog page. Before that it was gray—everything from stone to charcoal invaded stylish American closets.

As a big fan of brown and one who owns quite a lot of it (my new sweater in fact—no wonder it was on sale) I’ve been a bit nervous about the time that brown would cease to be the new black and be replaced with something else. I’ll have to go naked from now on, I guess, because it’s official—black is the new black.