To think there’s something wrong with dressing all in black???

[YourDreamyHare]

The other day, I was on a day off. I was wearing a black jumper dress, with a little bit of cream stitching, black tights, black boots and a black and white bag.

Although I was off work, I had to pop into the office to collect something. My colleague asked “where are you off to?” whilst looking at my outfit. I thought I was reading too much into this, so just answered with my plans for the day… shopping etc. But I did definitely notice the glances up and down at my outfit.

Later that same day, I had to drop my son off for a Halloween party, and a friend said “love that you’re dressed for Halloween”. I said that it wasn’t planned, and laughed it off.

It’s left me feeling a bit self conscious. Is wearing black head to toe a no-no?? I probably don’t do it often, but I really like that jumper dress and feel like I wouldn’t know how to wear it otherwise. I could keep it just for work, but I do want to be able to wear it at weekends and on days off. Is there some fashion rule that I’m completely unaware of? Is it because black is for funerals?

help!

Currently sitting here in a black top and black trousers, the only colour on me i my slippers.

I think it is more common in some parts of the country than others. Where I live you wouldn’t often see people head to toe in black other than younger goth/ emo types (or formal wear oc). But in London wearing all black is very common almost like a uniform in certain circles and echelons. Almost as if wearing colour is a bit uncouth/ unrefined.

Yes, this is a good observation.

I'm not sure it has to be just black; other sedate colours like ivory, beige, grey, charcoal and navy tend to do the trick.

But you are right that when a poster above mentioned colour looks better, the thought that flashed through my mind was not that it looks uncouth, quite, but quite often maybe slightly gauche or less well "put-together."

I don't find it depressing either.

To me it conveys a certain self-confidence, as though you don't need to be sporting "look at me" colours to feel noticed.

...if rather gauche at times ...

What’s gauche about green or red? I don’t wear red, but green suits me far more than black does.

We will make an exception last night as it was Halloween and the black dressers would have fitter in nicely.😂

It can be fine in fairness. But I personally feel colours need to be of good quality dye and fabric or they have a "cheap" look.

Some lovely deep reds can be wonderful if on a tastefully cut item, and some shades of green can be both fresh (eg linen) or elegant in more of a bottle green.

I think it was the way that poster had mentioned "red and green" together that immediately conjured up for me that acrylic Christmas jumper look where the dye colours have been cheaply produced and not had the "edge" taken off them.

Isn't it that you were a bit dressed up for a day off shopping etc, so colleague assumed you were going "somewhere"?

I love all black , think it looks very nice.
wouldn’t care what anyone else thought.

Good question. I don’t think either are gauche. I wear a lot of red. I also wear a lot of green. Although not usually at the same time. 😉I am sometimes head to toe in one or the other though.

I’ve also been known to wear all black. In summer. In hot places. Outrageous of me. I used to live in Asia. Black’s a very practical colour when it’s 38 degrees and 98% humidity and you still need to look smart at work.

I used to wear black a lot, my only annoyance was how many shades of black there appear to be! Why do folk have to comment on other's clothes anyway, unless it's a genuine compliment?

I don’t think clothes that aren’t black look right. Been like that for decades. Summer is tricky but I prevail 😜

Just saw this! ‘Not enough whimsy in the world’ hahaha.

Years ago I was waiting for a train. Long wool coat, pointed boots, doctors bag and walking umbrella. All black. I heard a little girl of about four whisper ‘mum- is that a witch??’ while staring like mad. I am nearly six foot tall, was slim with perfect white skin and long black hair then too (natural). I nodded once and made a little ‘shh’ face to her like she was giving my secrets away - she was like 👀 I used to get cat-called about it a lot, and referred to as The Scottish Widow as well, if anyone remembers her. TBH I felt like a million bucks in those days, but have mellowed and will occasionally allow a tweed if I want to look all party-hearty.

sorry for your loss 🖤

I love wearing all black, I look great in it. But I have a white cat so can't wear it at home, only for going out.

I think you might have slightly misunderstood - single colour dresses of red or green (and it might not be the point but you are referring to acrylic novelties, they're natural fabrics like wool/merino/cashmere, as I also find that in keeping with my lifelong hatred of heat, I'm more comfortable in those when going from outside to heated buildings - that and I don't fancy my clothes still lingering somewhere in a thousand years time).

Why is it so difficult for some people to understand that different things make different people happy?

No, I don’t wear black because it’s supposed to be ‘slimming’ and no, wearing black in summer doesn’t make me feel hot or sad. I wear black because I love it and I look great in it and it makes me happy.

If it would make you feel hot and sad to look at me in my favourite black sundress or my black denim shorts and black vest top, then I’m afraid I simply couldn’t give a shit. You can look away.

"No, I don’t wear black because it’s supposed to be ‘slimming’ and no, wearing black in summer doesn’t make me feel hot or sad."

I wasn't talking about YOU specifically. I know people who wear black all the time because it's supposed to be slimming. These same people are not great at tolerating the heat because being overweight makes you less able to tolerate heat.

"If it would make you feel hot and sad to look at me in my favourite black sundress or my black denim shorts and black vest top, then I’m afraid I simply couldn’t give a shit. You can look away."

Of course I can, unless you are standing right in front of me and I need to go forwards or talk to you. However, this is S&B where the OP is asking for other people's opinions so telling people to 'look away' doesn't make much sense, does it?

Re the heat debate, I read this from an article in Nature:

It seems likely that the present inhabitants of the Sinai, the Bedouins, would have optimised their solutions for desert survival during their long tenure in this desert Yet, one may have doubts on first encountering Bedouins wearing black robes and herding black goats. We have therefore investigated whether black robes help the Bedouins to minimise solar heat loads in a hot desert. This seemed possible because experiments have shown that white hair on cattle1,2 and white feathers on pigeons3 permit greater penetration of short-wave radiation to the skin than black. In fact, more heat flowed inward through white pigeon plumage than through black when both were exposed to simulated solar radiation at wind speeds greater than 3 m s−1 (ref. 3). We report here that the amount of heat gained by a Bedouin exposed to the hot desert is the same whether he wears a black or a white robe. The additional heat absorbed by the black robe was lost before it reached the skin.

I said in one of my posts that I was talking about Europe and not the Middle East.

I wear all black all the time in jumper season. Don’t feel conscious. I love it with my blonde hair.