Today I'm going to look at a huge trend right now... black and white (B&W).

THE TREND
High contrast equals high fashion this season with many variations on the pairing of thses 2 powerful basics.  Whether its in bold patterns or complimentary separates, there's no doubt that opposites attract. In music, Gwen Stefani is a huge star right now, and she, as we all know, wears tons of black & white. In the film industry, Drew Barrymore and Sienna Miller have both taken to B&W. Drew, in a more tailored style, and Sienna with her go-everywhere bold B&W striped tunics. In the world of fashion, the spring collections are teeming with B&W. And Madonna recently worked with H&M to come out with her collection that is primarily, you guessed it, B&W.

B&W CHARACTERISTICS
Its easy to see why these celebs love B&W These opposites are clashing, confrontational colours in themselves. They are striking, expressive, and clear. BLACK denotes strength, power, and night. WHITE denotes innocence, calm, and day. They're a dynamic duo.

And they're so versatile.  They work for everybody.  No, I mean they really work for us.  B&W can be used to create shapes & fool the eye. Wearing a black top & white bottom looks very fresh and has graphic appeal, but it also deemphasizes the top. Going the opposite way, black bottom & white top, will emphasize the top and take the focus off the bottom. You can also use strategic panels of these 2 contrasting colours to slenderize and flatter the figure.

B&W Can be playful or serious.  Take any print and convert it to black and white and it instantly becomes bold and brash, making a statement.  Yet it somehow manages to stay classic at the same time.

This killer combo is always in style. But that still doesn't explain why its particularly in style RIGHT NOW. Why now?  What need is this trend responding to?

TREND CONFUSION
Maybe Trend Confusion could explain it.  There are so many styles to choose from... floral, hot colours, bohemian, feminine lacy etc. Its just too many opinions.  It hurts our heads.  We reject all that fussiness in favour of clear and strong.  The answer is B&W. But there must be more reason than that.  It has to go deeper.  Let's look at some B&W icons of the past for a clue.

COCO
We'll start with the Grandmammy of B&W fashion, COCO CHANEL. She became a hat designer in 1908, set up a millenery shop in Paris in 1910 and opened two boutiques in 1914, and continued to design smart yet simple fashions in contrast to the frilly and ornate fashions of the day. Wait a minute!  1914!  That's the same year WWI broke out! World War I, the Great War, and "The War to End All Wars," (yeah right) was a global military conflictwhich took place between 1914 and 1918.

By 1920, WWI was over & Chanel's fashion house had expanded considerably, and her chemise set a fashion trend with its "little boy" look.  Her relaxed fashions, short skirts, and casual look were in sharp contrast to the corset fashions popular in the previous decades. Chanel herself dressed in mannish clothes, and adapted these more comfortable fashions which other women also found liberating. In 1922 Chanel introduced a perfume, Chanel No. 5, and a superstar was born.

Let's look at a few other icons...

AUDREY HEPBURN
Fashion designer Mary Quant said it all when she bluntly titled Audrey "the most stylish woman who ever lived. Breakfast at Tiffany's was made in 1961, who could forget the black dress & gloves and chunky white pearls in that famous pose outside Tiffany's? Audrey and her "Tiffany's" look still continually inspire women.

There was another fashion icon who ruled B&W at the same time...

JACKIE O.
What about Jacquie O's standout B&W style? Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, besides being a dignified and serene woman, was an A-list socialite who's 'exquisite, equestrian-like grace' inspired books, films and fashion. She was a living fashion catalogue who was copied, envied and worshiped. Time magazine wrote in 1961 (Jan. 20)  "Whether she wants to or not, she will influence taste and style." In the early 60's she was everyone's favourite pin-up. The public were fascinated by what she wore and many women copied her. The easy cut Chanel suits, that oozed early 60's formality, were Jackie's trademark.

So what was happening in the world at this time? Well, this all happened smack dab in the middle of the VIET NAM WAR. Now the pattern is clear.  B&W are synonymous with wartime trends.

IRAQ WAR
And we are currently in a state of war. The IRAQ WAR, also called The War On Terror, is seeming to stretch on and on and is taking its toll in death and misery on society. It's not hard to see now that the Iraq War is a primary influence on the current B&W trend.  As history tells us, B&W always pops up in wartime. It only makes sense that B&W is in right now.  It HAS to be.

So this is what we've established: Whenever a society feels threat to survival, it turns to B&W in fashion.
THREAT TO SURVIVAL       =      B&W TREND

That's a solid conclusion.  But I want to take it even one step further. I propose that B&W is in now even more than it ever was in the past. Because on top of the war, we are facing a new threat to survival, that we never had to worry about back then...

GLOBAL WARMING
It is undeniable that the planet is warming, and this will mean the melting of the ice caps. This scary fact is made ever-present in our minds by movies like The Inconvenient Truth, extreme weather temperatures and natural disasters like flooding & tornadoes, and the news. World leaders implementing research programs all over the world to see how it can be abated, or at least slowed down

If you go back to the formula, now we have two threats to human survival:  global warming AND war.                  

THREAT TO SURVIVAL X 2  =   B&W TREND  X 2

so B&W MUST be in style, stronger than ever before.

And, this all totally fits with what society needs. If you'll indulge me for a moment of colour philosophy...

COLOURS
First, lets take the warming of the earth.  It makes us think of the reds & oranges of fire, and yellow like the sun, that is slowly overheating us. We reject those warm colours because they mean our future destruction

But then, what happens after the earth warms up?  The ice caps melt and we get flooded. This makes us think of blues and cool colours. So we reject those cool colours too since THEY mean our destruction. And we say down with colour altogether. We cling to our one clear cut choice: B&W. Where colour means death, the absence of colour must mean life. 

CONCLUSION
So for us, B&W mean life and strength, the strength we're going to need to get through this. It makes us feel safe. Some people say that nothing is black and white.  Well those people are wrong.  Because when it comes to fashion, black & white CAN BE, SHOULD BE, AND IS!