There is an inherent, and entirely alluring, contradiction about black. Partly because of course it’s not a colour at all. It’s the absence of one.
We say we are ‘in the black’ when times are good, and yet in many cultures we wear it to the funerals. It’s the colour of the goths and the classicists. Of Audrey Hepburn nibbling a croissant in front of Tiffany’s in black Givenchy and Morticia Addams’ signature look in The Addams Family. It’s sombre and modest. It’s also the sexiest colour you can wear. A little black dress – ask Princess Diana and Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel – can be the ultimate form of revenge.
Princess Diana arriving at London’s Serpentine Gallery in 1994 in her “revenge dress”, a gown by Christina Stambolian. Photo: Getty ImagesIndeed the revenge dress was on Matthieu Blazy’s mind for his first cruise collection for Chanel, held in Biarritz in April. In a collection that brought to mind glamorous mermaids, the first look was a drop-waist, deep V black shift dress. Backstage, Blazy spoke of Gabrielle Chanel creating what he called the first “revenge” outfit in 1926 with a simple black dress. Chanel believed black to be the superior colour (or absence of one), once stating, “Women think of all colours except the absence of colour. I have said that black has it all. White, too. Their beauty is absolute. It is the perfect harmony.”Blazy was not the only designer to be thinking about the power of black – its balancing act – in recent seasons. Comme des Garçons’ Rei Kawakubo, usually opaque to the point of taciturn in her show notes, expanded on black’s power ahead of her fall 2026 show, writing, “In the end, there is black. Ultimately Black. I have come to realise that, after all, black is the colour for me. It’s just the strongest, the best for creation, and the colour that embodies the rebellious spirit. And has the biggest meaning: the Universe and the Black Hole.”
Chanel cruise 2026-27 collection. Photo: Handout
Kawakubo then sent 16 all-black looks – ruched, padded and swathing the body. Then the music cut out, and six bubblegum pink looks completed the show. What did it mean? Well, in Kawakubo’s world, everything can be distilled to the questioning of things, of challenging ideas of the body, of clothes and of beauty. When Kawakubo made her Paris debut in 1981, her acolytes were dubbed “crows” by the fashion press. And Comme-heads are not the only “crows” this season.
This was especially so at Maria Grazia Chiuri’s debut show as chief creative officer at Fendi. Almost every look not only played on Chiuri’s take on the Fendi silhouette, but on black. There were lean black suits, inky, chubby mid-length fur jackets and wrought iron-like lace midi-skirts and off-the-shoulder dresses.
Fendi fall/winter 2026. Photo: HandoutPierpaolo Piccioli was another to explore dimensions of black for his fall 2026 collection for Balenciaga, opening with an all-in-one voluminous leather bomber jacket and pencil skirt, the hard-edged glamour of it leading to more classic black coats with funnel necks and cinched-in jumpsuits. Throughout the collection – one that danced between the couture classicism of Cristóbal Balenciaga and the streetwear legacy of Demna, the house’s previous creative director – the use of black allowed for such stretchiness of ideas.Nadège Vanhée too opened this season with all black looks at Hermès, in a collection that explored the tension between practicality and sensuality.