But why the hell is black so sad?

In our clothing practices, black has always been an ambivalent color , worn both to celebrate an event and to bury a loved one.

In the 15th century, the herald Sicily already wrote: “although the color black appears sad, it is of high status and great virtue”. At the end of the 19th century the situation had changed little; the art critic Gustave Geoffroy further noted that the black habit, this “funeral envelope with which we put on as a sign of joy, on evenings of pleasure”, was “both mortuary and [gay]”.

Today this color is becoming rarer in our closets : we often consider it gloomy and boring; in 2022 the website “The Red Tie” reminds us that a black tie can be a sign of mourning and should not be worn too often at the risk of being perceived as “someone who would be sad or bland”. We may wonder where black gets its gloomy reputation.

To find out Benoît's opinion on this color, there is a complete video on the subject:

1. IT IS THE COLOR OF FEAR AND DEATH

In our collective imagination, black is associated with several concepts, expressions, entities with negative connotations. It is first of all the color of night, of nothingness, of death, opposed to the white of hope, to the light of the night light keeping away the demons of childhood.

The historian Michel Pastoureau, in a book devoted to the subject (Seuil, 2008), noted that it was truly from the 11th century that it was associated with the devil, the "prince of Darkness", and that it colored the clothes of those who trade with him.

Until today it remains the color par excellence of witches, its servants.

It is also the basis of the conflation that some people make between fans of gothic looks and satanists. Let's also think about the menacing black flag of pirates, and the superstitions surrounding animals of this color, in particular the cat and the crow. In our language itself, black is rarely positive: we grind black, never blue, we have black ideas, never red.

It has also become the adjective of tragic moments in our history, from the great “black” plague which struck Europe in the 14th century to “Black Thursday” of October 24, 1929, the first day of the worst stock market crash of the 20th century. It is also an authoritarian color, associated with control and punishment, and can therefore inspire fear.

During the Second World War she dressed both the SS of the Third Reich and the black shirts of Mussolini's militia. Far from these two extremes, it has been found since the 19th century on the uniforms of the guardians of order: police officers – who have since abandoned it – but also lawyers and priests – who have kept it.

In our Western society, we mourn our dead dressed in black. It has not always been the case. Michel Pastoureau reminds us that the mourning clothes of the Romans were rather gray and those of the kings of the Middle Ages were purple.

If the practice of mourning began to become widespread at the beginning of the 17th century, it was really the 19th century which imposed black, possibly associated with other colors.

We often think of Victorian women covered in dark crepe, but men were also subject to this sartorial decorum. In 1834, Madame Celnart pointed out that a widower had to prefer “cloth clothes without buttons” and black “wool stockings” for six weeks, then “black cloth clothes with buttons” and silk stockings. black. Finally “the little mourning of the last three months [was] the black habit” associated, among other things, with white silk stockings.

In public space , black therefore became the visible symbol of fate and tragedy. Today, although mourning clothing hardly ever leaves the cemetery, its color remains associated with this dismal place, each time death brings us there.

However, black ties and suits are also found elsewhere, worn by a driver as well as by “men who are looking for a classic look” – according to the “tie-shop” website.

2. IT’S THE COLOR OF A CERTAIN ERASE

The example of the driver is not taken at random. Many service professions have made black the main shade of their uniform : it is elegant, sober and erases those who wear it.

Even today, department store salespeople are dressed in black so as not to overshadow the collections they present, nor the customers. In many cafes and brasseries, black pants , vest and tie are still required for boys.

We could see the weight of tradition there, but the sales staff of the “Chez Meunier” bakeries, a brand founded only in 2014, makes us think otherwise. In the private sphere the same thing has long been observed, from Madame's maid to Monsieur's valet.

Those who are paid to serve others are not the only ones to disappear under this color: this has also long been the case for poor people. At the beginning of the 1840s Maurice B. signed the most original portrait of the French painted by themselves, a work published by Léon Curmer: “Misery in black clothes”. This is a “wear of misery”, worn out, to be differentiated from “luxury clothing”.

It goes hand in hand with poverty and reflects a “failed” existence. It is the outfit of those who only have one, the only one that the former student keeps from his trousseau "because it is for all seasons, because with the black outfit you can go everywhere ". It is that of the tobacconist, the sub-ad broker, the bookstore traveler... who preferred this shade for the same reasons.

3. IT’S A MORAL COLOR

Before the chemical advances of the dyers of the 19th century, black was, since the Middle Ages, mainly worn by the great people of this world who paid dearly for it because it was difficult to obtain.

In the 16th century it established itself lastingly throughout Europe, but without gaining in cheerfulness: it was precisely its virtuous austerity that appealed , one of the only areas of common ground between the Catholics and the Protestants, then in conflict. Among the first, the Habsburg kings of Spain wore this color from Charles V onwards, imitated by their subjects and their neighbors.

During the first half of the 17th century, religious sermons and several sumptuary edicts – legislating on clothing – called for sobriety and black was still very present in the men's wardrobe. On the Protestant side, the same reserve was advocated by the great reformers.

Michel Pastoureau even speaks of “Protestant chromophobia”. Clothing, a direct consequence of original sin – Adam and Eve having eaten the forbidden fruit became aware of their nudity – had to be humble. This idea was not new at the time and Savonarola, the great religious reformer of Florence in the 15th century, was already expressing it.

4. IT’S A COMMON COLOR

After a colorful 18th century, discreet black took first place again during the Revolution , when any pretext was good for the scaffold. It is also of this color that the costume of the deputies of the Third Estates in the Estates General of 1789 was. In the 19th century, the fashions found a little gaiety but will never again have the fantasy of those of the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI.

The “fashionables” then looked towards the British Isles, heirs of an entirely Protestant asceticism. Little by little, men seem to have given up on adornment and the cities were populated by bankers, industrialists and even idlers dressed in black – or at least dark colors.

During the Belle Epoque it had become so universal that, in the opinion of Gustave Geoffroy, sumptuary laws would not have been able to overcome it: “If there is something immutable and eternal in this time, it 'is probably this irreplaceable black coat [...]'. Adopted by everyone, some did not consider it any less sad. For Alfred de Musset in 1836, “this black garment worn by the men of our time is a terrible symbol. [...] It is human reason which has overthrown all illusions and which itself bears mourning.

In 1858, Théophile Gautier reported that some “[were] surprised at the persistence of people of the world in keeping a costume so sad, so dull, so monotonous”. Later Gustave Geoffroy went so far as to affirm that “[the gentleman who took his side in life] did not find a preferable emblem to indicate the death of his illusions”.

These voices that are raised are those of dandies in search of individuality. For them nothing is worse than conformity and banality. Now this black is common to all classes of society , from the man of the world to the butler; but as Roger Dardel remarked in Monsieur in January 1923, won't the first want to distinguish itself from the second?

Today black is still worn, but perhaps less than before. If it remains the most elegant color in the evening, during the day it is now rarer to come across a suit of this shade: since the interwar period we have preferred navy blue, gray and brown.

For some it has even become too mournful for a funeral. According to historian John Harvey, “the fact that we no longer wear black mourning at the time of a funeral, nor subsequently, is explained by our desire to think as little as possible about death. We do not want to contemplate our end [...]”.

Finally, the black clothing that most populates our streets and our magazines is tracksuits : their history is less long and less connoted than that of more formal clothing. From the tuxedo to the funeral suit, from the uniform to the sweatshirt, the sadness of black is above all circumstantial.