BLACK MAGIC

Only black will ever be the new black

- JONATHAN HO

ACCORDING TO A MANUSCRIPT from the archive of the Fondation Pierre Berge-Yves Saint Laurent, his favourite colour was black. The iconoclast understood the power of pantsuits in 1966 as he unveiled the "Le Smoking": a black tuxedo jacket for women worn with a ruffled white shirt and a satin cummerbund. New York socialite Nan Kempner was turned away from Le Côte Basque, a former high-society temple of French cuisine, for wearing hers. Ironically, her attire was found acceptable after she removed the trousers and wore the double-breasted blazer as a mini-dress - a gorgeous ensemble still en-vogue today.

In fact, Mr. Saint Laurent himself used to say: "There is not just one black, but many blacks." Creatives work with the hue because unlike red or green, which represent specific wavelengths of light, black isn't exactly a colour. Instead, what we see when an object absorbs all visible wavelengths, putting it in a category by itself. Its singular darkness has a unique visual potency, and its adaptability has long made it open to interpretation by the numerous groups that have adopted it. Creatives work with it because it puts all the emphasis on proportion, texture and cut. The myriad of ways black can be interpreted indeed connote that there are many kinds of black.