The Friday Fillip: Winter Black

We are a dull lot, I fear. Look around this winter and see what people are wearing. Chances are good, in cities at least, that whatever the shape or style of coat, it’s a dark colour and likeliest of all to be black. What is that about? Winter all by itself leaches colour from the environment, and though a good greyscale can be lovely in the right hands, there’s no need for us to go along with winter’s plan of severity.

Wouldn’t it be more fun — dare I say, exciting — to walk down a winter street and feast your eyes on bright colours? Neons, chartreuse, crimson, sky blue, lemon yellow in riot like a crazy English border. Here on my computer I can specify any of 16,777,216 colours; and in the real world there is an infinity of shades. We fade to black.

Black, of course, is sophisticated. Black is the non-colour that lets the wearer’s hue shine through. It’s conservative (though what’s being conserved isn’t clear to anyone, I suspect). It’s the urban subfusc (still), for those who are too involved with truly serious and important matters to worry about something so ditzy as . . . colour. Oh, and there’s the thrill of being utterly and dangerously invisible to drivers at night.

I blame men. Until mere moments ago, as these things run, men’s shoes came in brown and black, suits in grey, navy and black, socks in black black black. This is starting to change. A little. But the peacock is almost extinct, I fear, and more’s the pity.

For my visual environment to change for the better, men need to sneak up on boldness in dress. Accessories would get them some of the way there. Colourful ties are always possible, though most don’t wear them. Socks are another good place to start: the risk is small because they’re covered most of the time and the surprise factor at the crossing of a leg when the red and yellow lightning strike appears is a good reward. Scarves present a real winter opportunity. Not dark plaid, not brown, not shades of grey, and certainly not black: but bright banners like knights’ pennants, like Tibetan prayer flags, like the laundry line at a circus.

And if it’s to be scarves, the question arises of how to knot them. Yes, there’s always the half granny, a sort of spatial black. But there are many many more ways to tie. To show you what I mean, here’s a cunningly filmed video that demonstrates 25 ways in just 4.5 minutes. (But wait, I hear the men say: that’s a woman in the video. I can’t knot my scarf like a woman, that would be . . . Colourful?)