Is black considered a colour or is it the absence of colour and light? Ultimately, when daylight fades and the lights are off or when we shut our eyes, black is what we perceive in the absence of shapes and colours.
On the colour wheel, black signifies complete colour saturation and absolute darkness. Its lack of warmth makes it appear cool to our eyes. When fully saturated, it is more vivid rather than dull.
Pitch black conveys mystery and depth: the vastness of space; a coal mine; midnight; carbon; jet.
Black is associated with strictness, sobriety and austerity, and it was commonly worn by the Puritans, Calvinists and the first Pilgrim settlers in America. However, in the late 1600s, black started being linked to witchcraft, acquiring superstitious connotations.
In certain cultures, black is the colour of mourning, worn to funerals and traditionally during the formal grieving period. Queen Victoria notably wore black as she mourned her husband, Albert, for the rest of her life. Victorian women were expected to observe mourning customs, including wearing black attire, for four years after their husband's passing.
Jet, also known as lignite, is a type of coal that forms over Millennia from highly pressurised wood. It can be carved and polished to have a glass-like finish. Whitby jet, from England's North-East coast, has been used in jewellery, since Roman times. The Crown jewellers crafted commemorative black jewellery for Queen Victoria's mourning, leading to a surge in demand for Whitby jet by the 1870s.
In the early twentieth Century, Coco Chanel popularised the 'Little Black Dress' in her designs, transforming black clothing into a symbol of modern French chic, overlaying its previous association with mourning.
The 1950s Beatniks were renowned for their black turtlenecks and all black outfits, embodying a 'cool' intellectual and artistic subculture that eventually influenced mainstream fashion.
Drawing inspiration from the Romantic movement of the nineteenth Century, the Goth and New Romantic subcultures of the 1980s embraced all black attire to evoke a melancholic, romantic mood.
Since the 1970s, Japanese designers such as Rei Kawakubo and especially, Yohji Yamamoto, have utilised black in their anti-fashion, avant-garde and minimalist designs.