Not by choice but I had black skirts and black shoes as a child. I think even my baby shoes were black.

I had black garments and accessories since I was quite small, however I gave up wearing it completely more than a year ago, maybe two (I am now 28).

People are often surprised by that, if it comes up. I’ve also had friends and colleagues comment on it. I much prefer my style now, and I think not wearing black has helped me to be more creative. Also, given my fair skin and dark hair, I don’t think it was especially flattering on me.

I find it interesting that you recall your first black item, Angie. I wonder if it is a generational or cultural difference.

I grew up in the 90s and my mom– who was maybe sticking to some rules from her own childhood– discouraged me from wearing black until I was in high school and “old enough.” I remember kicking up a big fuss that she wouldn’t buy me black party dresses in junior high, but I don’t remember if this was true for a lot of my peers.

I don’t remember the first black item I added to my wardrobe by choice. My mother gave me almost complete reign over my choice of clothing from adolescence onward, and I was in charge of dressing myself. As a teen, I wore black jeans, boots, blouses and tees. I had a fairly simple, loose, black, leather jacket that I still have tucked away somewhere. I also used to wear these hideous black cargo pants I would never touch again.

However, I do have a photo of myself and my brother when I was about 2, and I think we were attending a wedding. My mother had dressed me in a black, velveteen dress with a white, lace collar, white tights, and little black, patent t-straps. My brother, who was four, was dressed in a little tuxedo complete with cummerbund and a bright red bowtie. I can’t imagine the struggle it was for my parents to get us into those clothes, and I suspect we may have gotten them muddy about 2 minutes after the picture was taken.

Whoops, forgot to login again. I don’t know why the “remember me” option doesn’t always seem to be working on my computer.

We had to wear black shoes as part of our school uniform. But it’s interesting that what you point out is true. I didn’t really own much black on my wardrobe until later. As a child I wore yellows, reds (some things never change as I still wear those colors a lot), pinks, etc. My first memory of a non-uniform black items is a black with white polka dots top in my late teens. I adored this outfit because of the black and white contrast which I still sport a lot of.

I grew up in the 80s and early 90s, and I think I must have had black leggings and things to pair with my neon brights from quite a young age. I don’t really remember.

Interesting!

Sara, seeing as I am a good 12 years older than you – the generational thing plays a role.

Interesting. I definitely had black patent leather shoes as a baby – that was quite common back then, and I imagine I had them before I could actually walk, just for show. I’ve seen them in photos

Otherwise, no black as a kid, I’d say. But I sure made up for it as soon as I hit my teens. And boy did I wear a ton of black – with a few neon accents – when I was around 15-18. I was very much into New Wave and stuff.

After that, when I started college it was pretty much all black and blue denim with very little color, and that lasted throughout my twenties. I only really started getting away from the black in my thirties. And now I love having a very colorful wardrobe!

I don’t wear black – and by that I mean, I have not ONE black item in my wardrobe.

That being said, I grew up in the 80s so from age 13 until 18 I wore black only, and dressed rather like a goth boy.

At age 20 I realised it didn’t suit me and got rid of it!

I didn’t wear much black as a kid, because I think my mom thought it was a grown up color. However, I did have a pair of black reebok hi-tops when I was around 10 – I wanted to be Janet Jackson! This was in the late 80′s/early 90′s.

When I was in kindergarten, I had a black velvet dress with a white cotton peter pan collar that I wore for dressy occasions, like Christmas. It is currently hanging in my daughter’s closet (my mom held onto it and passed it on), but it’s a bit dated, so I’ve never asked her to put it on. It was pretty cute at the time, though.

My seven year old daughter has always liked black. It isn’t hard to find plain black girls’ tops, and she has a least three. I know I got a couple of them at H&M. She wears them all the time, usually with a cute skirt in a bright colour. She also had a black velour Hanna Andersson dress that she loved, but she outgrew it last year. It wasn’t unlike the one I had as a kid, only hers didn’t have the white collar.

I can’t remember dressing her in many black things as a toddler, but I can remember this one black long sleeved tee shirt she had that said “AB/CD” only with a lightning bolt instead of a slash — you know, like in AC/DC, the metal band. My son wore it too, when he grew into it.

I’ve got to add this. My son came home from daycare today sporting black and orange fingernail polish — black and orange on alternating fingers — so I guess he likes black, too!

I wore black as a little girl only for ballet class: black leotard and black practice slippers. Once I went to a birthday party right after ballet and my mother just popped a jumper (the thing that’s like overalls, only it’s a dress) over my leotard, but she made me explain to the birthday girl why I had on a black layer. Black was definitely not the done thing for little girls, at least where I lived.

I think my first black piece was a long black gown for a formal dance in high school. Seems impossible that I had nothing black before then, but that’s how I remember it.

I didn’t wear black in high school on a regular basis: our “dress code” was all about baggy flannel shirts and Levi’s, but I do remember that my prom dress my senior year was black (with black and white striped accents). I remember feeling like I was being very daring and cutting edge .

In college, in the late ’80s, I wore a mix of vintage, men’s clothes, eighties highlights like leggings/tunics/sweater dresses, and lots and lots of black. I vividly remember starting to wear black shoes (including men’s wingtips, since I couldn’t find any for women) and how that was unusual at the time. I guess shoes were either sneakers or brown typically?

Shoot, I forgot to add something: when my son was born in 1998, we took him to the pediatrician when he was a newborn wearing a long nightgown-type thing that was white with little black stars on it. I remember the pediatrician admonishing us: “I don’t like to see babies in black.” So I guess some people still don’t like the idea of babies/children wearing black for some reason. I thought she was a jerk.

Ha! I’m having trouble remembering that far back! Perhaps a black crew neck sweater that I wore in high school on the Drill Team. The uniform consisted of the sweater paired with a plaid skirt, black/ white saddle shoes and black knee socks. I cringe to even think about it!

Wow! This is a really good question, Angie. I honestly can’t remember wearing anything black as a child besides the black patent leather shoes many others have mentioned. My mom was a big fan of navy blue, so that was the default neutral in our family. I don’t think I wore black until I was in my twenties!

Hmm I know I had black school shoes, can’t remember any earlier than that. Can’t remember what my first item of black clothing was, however. I know I wore a lot of pink and fluro growing up however!

First that I remember well was in 1971…black wool “culotte” type skirt for pep club. Worn with black and yellow-striped sweater. came with 3 choices of knee sox — all black, all yellow or a black/yellow argyle. Worn with black lace-up Bandolino brand oxfords. I still have the sweater. Do schools still have Pep Club?

What a fun read!

Jonesy, I bet your infant son looked adorable

Antje, it was all the rage for little girls to wear black patent shoes when we were little. Of course, my Mum had me in WHITE patent shoes.

Oh my goodness, I actually remember the first time I wore black in any meaningful way, so it must have been quite an event! I believe it was 1984 (I was 14) and I wore a one piece jumpsuit by Esprit. I LOVED that jumpsuit. It was boxy and I wore a low slung brown belt with it. I think I “pegged” the legs too. It was quite the bold fashion statement in my small town high school in Central Texas.

Hmm, I really can’t remember. Interesting question.

I don’t think I had any black items excepts my school uniform. For regular weekdays girls wore brown dresses with black aprons (white aprons for special occasions). I also remember thick black leggings to wear under uniform dresses in winter (no pant option in our school uniform). I disliked all these dreary colors so much.

I don’t remember having black shoes as a child (I had cream, red, taupe). I suspect my Mom wasn’t very fond of black for me.
(Hee, this is off topic, I suddenly remembered my fake fur coat with a cheetah or leopard print. I was around 10, or younger. The coat was knee length, and when it was really cold I wore it with red knee high boots. I didn’t have a choice picking any of these items. I don’t think I’ve worn an animal print since then.)

When I was a teen, I think my first consciously chosen black item would have been shoes.

Oh yikes, I just remembered my black one piece swimsuit when I was 12. I disliked it so much, and desperately wanted something much brighter.

i had the black shoes like most others. i remember wearing a black Jessica McClintock dress to my first black tie event when I was 15-a bar mitzvah. i’m guess i wore a little black before that but not much. On another not, I wore a LBD today that is 9 years old and I think still in style

I think I always wore black. I don’t think my parents put that restriction on my sister and I

Oh my first grown up black was a velvet jacket with a red silk rose on the lapel. I bought it for a disco. I would have been about 15 in 1974. I wore that jacket untill it had a shine to it!!! Ahh my first true clothing love

I’m a tad younger (half a decade), and even though Duran Duran (and slowly Madonna) had begun changing the fashion scene, I remember that even a schoolmate told me to avoid wearing black (heh heh, I have always had a conservative look!).
Still, when I was 13, my first black item, a T-shirt with a copper-ish tribal print on it, became a wardrobe staple. Next, I got black 501s, but I did not wear them together with the T-shirt, as far as I remember… Today, I wear quite a lot of black by default (a la Coco Chanel’s advice), but I always try to spruce it up with colourful scarves, etc.

I remember not wanting/liking black as a kid/teen, as a rebellion to the rock rebellion who was getting my school drab( as part of the uniform you could have a either black or white button down with a navy blazer, and I didn’t like dark navy/black combo).At 18 I bought myself my prom ( end of high-school) dress black and ruched and awesome( I wore it after at 3 different weddings). But other than that, i was pretty much colorful tops and denim bottoms. At 21 when my granny died, I remember I had to go to the store because I didn’t have anything black in my wardrobe. I bought a black knit top and a black ponte skirt. I was amazed I actually looked decent in black. After a while I started to buy bright bottoms ( floral, orange, skirts) and I realized how useful a black top is. So now i have a cardigan , turtleneck, v neck and a tee in black . But i still much prefer gray or navy for neutral bottoms.

Strangely I can’t remember any colour doctrines when I was little. I’m sure there must have been. Black shoes for sure, but the darkest anything else got was navy. Born in 1960 I had my first style epiphany in the early 80s: a fashion mag presented an everyday look consisting of a black turtleneck pullover, jeans mini, black tights and leopard print ballet flats and gold and cubic circonia stud earrings. I copied the look right away and started wearing black. I must have been very impressed as I still remember the photo!

During the eighties my favourite place to shop was Tammy Girl, it had such fashionable children’s clothes and was part of the larger Etam shop my Mum used to shop at, one Saturday we went looking for winter coats ( I would have been 7 or and we both came home with the same black and cream tweed strong shouldered coat, it was very Dynasty and I felt so grown up wearing it. That was definitely my first black item other than the school shoes I endured. I also had a cream fit and flare dress with a black and cream striped bodice and a cream bolero for my youngest Sister’s christening, I would have been nine.

I don’t remember when I started wearing black. I can remember wearing black ‘cotton leggings/cyclist pants) by the age of 10, or even younger, but would pair them with colourful shades so I still looked like a kid. First black top was probably acquired by the time I was 14 or 15. Personally, I don’t like it when kids wear black clothing unless the black is contrasted with other childish items. People of my generation tend to complain about how awfully our parents dressed us when we were kids and how cute kids look nowadays, but if I think about it, I rather my mom dressed me like she did. When I look at the photos of my childhood, I can see that yes, some items were just crazy, but overall my clothing style was colourful, fun and sweet. Teachers actually complimented my mom on my clothes since I started kindergarden. They always said I looked so cute and well dressed. But nowadays, I’ve seen 4 year-old girls with replicas of what I was wearing myself (aka. short denim skirts, tight tops, ballet flats, skinnies…) I mean, they look cute, but I feel like there is no transition between their clothing style and the teenager clothing style. If I weighted 80 and measured 4.9” (and I’m sure there are some SUPER petite women with those measurements), I could easily get dressed in the kids department. Actually, some women do, which is nice given their situation, but problematic when you think about it as a whole. I also don’t think skinny jeans, ballet flats (not mary janes) and tight tops and cardigans are practical clothing items for a 4 year-old kid who can’t stay sited for more than 5 minutes.
What’s even worse, I’ve seen ten year old girls with kitten heels. Ok, so they are not high, so WHAT? They are GIRLS wearing WOMEN’s shoes.

Angie, our moms shared the same aversion to black clothing for children. Our moms were born in the same era so it must have been a generational thing, on their part. As a baby and toddler, I only wore white shoes. Later, I do remember having black patent leather mary janes, and as a grade school student, I had black patent leather go-go boots. But black clothing? I don’t remember a single item!

When I look at my old photos, I can tell I didn’t wear black as a kid, but I started wearing it and buying black clothes sometime around the age of 13 or 14 (because that’s what my friends were wearing). Most of my high school clothes were black and I started wearing it less and less in college. I stoped buying black clothes a few years ago. Today when I am 29, I own a few black items: I have 2 pairs of black high heels, 2 pairs of black slacks, one LBD, one black sweater and one black peacoat that I wear maybe once a year. The reason why I actually have ‘so many’ black items in my wardrobe is sad. I had a few funerals to attend in last couple of years and I needed black clothes. For formal work environment I choose gray and navy rather than black.

The only black items I had as a young child were black patent and black velvet mary janes. When I was 10, I had a Christmas dress that was black with an ivory voile collar and I think that was the first solid black garment I owned.

My son is 7 and has still never worn anything solid black other than his Addias Samba sneakers. He has owned a navy velvet sportcoal and dark charcoal trousers and white shirts with black check designs in the last couple of years, but really do not like to dress children in black.

I think there is a strong cultural bias against it in some regions. I grew up in the South and have rarely seen young children dressed in solid black in my social circles. Even for funerals, it is more common where I grew up to see young children (up to 5 or so) dressed in head to toe white than in black. Dark colors are also more commonly navy, forest green and dark burgundy than black.

I remember of black not being a color for kids.My mother used to put me in a black velvet jumper dress with flower stiching at the hem and a red turtleneck underneath.Looking back I have to admit that I looked cute(I was about 4 or 5) but it was a diferent look from all the other girls.
Besides that and the black mary janes there was no more black for me until I was almost 20 and decided to try a black and white skirt from my mother.
For my daughter I don’t dress her with much black apart from leggings and the odd shirt but by herself she chose some black mary janes the last time we went shoe shopping for her.It must be in the genes this black mary jane thing

As a child, my mother dressed me in browns and golds and oranges…which were HER best colors. I’m not sure she did it because she was against black on children or because she was so Team Brown. When I turned 14 (around 1979) I started earning my own money and buying my own clothes and I started wearing more blacks and “cool” colors…especially cobalt blue and red. I remember one of my first purchases was a bright red pair of overalls!

I have an almost 8-year old daughter and she wears black all the time. It’s not her best color but she likes it. All the other kids are wearing it. And I’m not about to argue over things like clothing….she can express herself how she wants.

Marlene, poor you! Those are difficult colors to wear.

As for me, I can’t remember, black shoes must have been it. I do remember though a black leather skirt I got second hand of which I became very proud circa 1983.

My mom’s rule (and mine, too): No black near the face for children.

Growing up that meant black patent mary janes in the cold months, white Bass sandals in the summer. I coveted the white patent mary janes for some reason, but my mom did NOT like them for some reason.

I had black pants and skirts by middle school. I think they were required for band/choir performances, paired with a white blouse.

At 14 I became responsible for buying my own clothes. Hello black tops! I also had a black tank suit from Express that I loved. Luckily I’m a “winter” and black doesn’t look terrible on me.

I have a 6 yr old now. She also wears black mary janes (but suede with a rubber sole) as her winter dress shoe. And she wears black leggings and yoga pants. But no black tops or dresses. We have some hand-me-down dresses in the closet that have black bodices, and I’m not sure I’ll let her wear them when she is tall enough. She already looks two years older than she is; I really don’t need her looking any more mature than that. Having a tough time finding clothes that are age-appropriate for her now that she is in “big girl” sizes.

When I was growing up (back in the dark ages!), black apparel was considered a sign of mourning, at least in the social culture that was my environment at that time (very conservative religious families). No one in my family wore black, in fact I think my parents would wear navy or brown for solemn occasions.

But when I was in high school, a choral group that I was in selected basic black dresses (sheath style) for the uniform of the girls, and we all had to purchase them from a specific store. This was quite exciting for me, because up until then every item that I ever wore was hand-sewn by my mother. Wearing that black dress was definitely a rite of passage for me!

I was a weird kid. I had my nose in a book all the time and dreamed of the glamorous cities I was reading about rather than the rural town I lived in. When I was in third grade, I saw a photo in the JC Penney catalog, of a woman dressed to attend the opera. She was wearing a white ruffled blouse and a floor length black velvet skirt. I wanted to dress that way so badly! So I begged and begged my mom, and though she thought I was insane, she sewed me a floor length black velvet skirt for my birthday.

I wore it just about every day, walking to school on country roads, collecting eggs from the chicken coop. You name it.

As I said, weird kid.

I still love black, though! And now, happily, I live in the city. I also attend the opera from time to time.

I honestly can’t remember my own first black item, is that weird? I do remember that I was allowed to wear a fab pair of black slacks (quite a modern style) that belonged to my Mum when I was twelve. It was on a Sunday, we were going to a party, and I felt so grown-up and fantastic;-)

Growing up in the 80s/90s I was allowed to wear black only as a shoe color. Black patent leather shoes were my favorite. my grandmother would have flipped if I had worn black clothing under 13. I did have a neon pink blue and black bathing suit when I was 10 though. I think other than black gym shorts I didn’t wear black until I was in 7th grade and then it was just tee shirts. I was dressed in navy a lot. I can’t put my little girls in black either. My mother in law bought my 4 year old a black and white striped tunic dress and when she put it on it just looked so unnatural. Then again I don’t really wear black either. I think I still don’t feel grown up enough for it on a regular day.

I was born in Soviet Union, and absolutely every school in USSR had the same school uniform for girls – brown dress with black pinafore for every day, and white pinafore for holidays. Different style and shapes, but all dresses were the same brown merino wool, and all pinafores were black merino. Also, black and brown were approved colors for hair bands and head bands, so every girl in USSR got her first black clothing item at 7 years, with beginning of the school education.
Plus, Soviet Union is very urbanized, a lot of people live in big industrial cities, so the start to wear black, grey, navy, brown and other practical colors at early age. For russian women black is definitely new, old and eternal black, I believe, more than a half in their wardrobes is black clothes.

I don’t remember my first black wardrobe item. I do remember my first pair of heels though. They were black, and about a 2 1/4 inch heel. Oddly enough, this is still my favorite heel height.

My mother was not traditional in terms of my attire when I was young, so I probably wore black before this, but I clearly recall my outfit for the first day of grade school (in 1991). It was a vest black on one side and an exuberant black and white print on the other, worn with a white blouse, black skirt, black tights, and black patent flats that had a jewelled/bowed embellishment at the toe. We both thought it was fabulous, and took a photo before school of me posing all sassy-like with my hands on my hips. Of course when my mother came to pick me up I was completely dishevelled, with runs in my tights and the decorations falling off my shoes.

Black on children was not the done thing where we lived, either. The only black items I can recall were ballet leotards and patent mary-jane shoes.

Angie, I think my first black wardrobe item was also a blazer, around the time I was 14 or so. I wasn’t allowed to wear a little black dress until I was 17 though. I wore one for my senior prom and felt oh so grown-up:)

For most of my teenage years black was about the only thing you would find in my wardrobe. I’ve made it a real point for the last 10 years to try to have a wide variety of colors in my closet. Black is easy though and a lot of cute items are black only. My mother would often attempt to get me to wear other colors – navy was one I drew the line at. Ironically, that is probably the color that looks best on me. I had so many black clothes, I don’t recall one particular item.

I will blame the black on my mother for dressing both me and my younger sister in similar clothes and lots of pink. At 33 yrs old, I just started wearing pink again a year ago!

I am looking at dressage show coats now and wish I could find something that wasn’t plain black. . . So boring:)

I never even thought of wearing black in this way, as an adult thing. I don’t recall anything black from when I was really young, but by the time I was in maybe 5th grade, my favorite shirt was a black knit top. So I had to be 11 at least. Perhaps even younger.

Ah, yes! I remember it well. I was 15 and my mother amazingly managed to convince my father that this outfit was fine for his little girl. I will never know how. It consisted of black gauchos worn with black lace up boots, a pale blue horizontally pin-tucked shirt with absolutely enormous puffy sleeves and all topped off with a midi-length black open vest. It was my first really fashionable outfit. Yes you’re right. 1970!!!!

mamark: I love that story. I would have wanted to be your friend when I was a kid. I might not have had a floor-length opera skirt, but I’d have brought the pearls!

I don’t think black was prohibited when I was a kid, but I don’t remember wearing it until high school (part of that was that I was in a school uniform until then). The first time I really remember dressing in all black was on a “spirit day” in high school. It was “60′s Day” and I wore the black, sleeveless, Jackie Kennedy inspired dress that my mom wore to my Dad’s college homecoming. I looked fabulous and I felt so grown up amongst all my peers who had gone the hippie route for their sixties attire.

No.. I can’t remeber but I remember two years ago my daughther asked me for black skinnies!! She was 10!

When I was a teenager, I knew black only as the colour of the conservative matron and the widow; the colour of religion, and of mourning. The only persons I ever saw wearing head-to -toe black were Greek grandmothers and priests. I had no desire then to wear black – my generation was all about colour and celebration; it was the start of the hippy era. Unlike today, clothing shops carried very few items in black. The only black item I had ever worn was my school shoes.
Yet I had to admit to being spellbound by a different wearer of black, whom I found only in magazines and old movies — the seductress in black with the long black gloves, the cigarette holder and the red lipstick. Longing for her elegance and mystique, though I wasn’t much of a siren myself, I did buy a black thirties-style satin wraparound evening gown, with black lace trim, that looked somewhat like a negligee. I was about 22, and I felt very sexy and grown up in this dress. It was 1973.
I was already beyond the age of teenage rebellion, so for me the later punk trend of wearing black had no appeal. So apart from the satin gown, I didn’t wear black again till the eighties, when the colour came onto the fashion scene for daywear with a vengeance. Up till that time, the standing fashion wisdom was that daytime black — a la LBD –was a look that could not be carried off successfully by any woman under the age of 30. Under- thirty-year-olds were seen as too immature and unsophisticated, and lacking in the composure, sense of occasion and self-confidence that was required to “own” the authority that black conveyed (as embodied by Coco Chanel!) Then there was also the view that black is too harsh and draining against the peachy complexion of youth, especially when little or no makeup is worn.( I note this view still has currency in some quarters; you can still come across fashion commentary which is critical of teenage starlets who wear black on the red carpet.)
What with wearing black as a regular part of their casual wardrobe, I wonder if today’s teenage girls, whether starlets or not, still see black for evening wear as their passport to sophistication and real adulthood, as I did with my black satin gown. After all, black is worn now by all classes in society and all ages for the most casual of activities and for the most informal of outfits. Yet black still seems to be revered as something special. The arbiters of style clearly hold it as the most chic of all the colours, the benchmark of refinement and good taste; at least, if the attire of fashion-show guests is anything to go by. A black outfit seems to say “respect the wearer” like no other colour can; and for that reason alone, I think that in the hierarchy of clothing colours, black will always hold number one place.

You know, I don’t remember black being something that I didn’t wear as a kid – black patent shoes for dressy events, black stretch pants under tee shirts. But I think my first black adult outfit was a loose sheath dress that I wore over striped tee shirts when I was in 5th grade. I felt pretty sharp in it.

I can’t recall my fist black clothing item, but I do remember being a teenager and purchasing a long black and white pinstripe pencil skirt with front slit and matching waistcoat. I loved that outfit. I think I had black heeled oxfords too.
My daughter never wears black because she doesn’t like the color. She’s a white, pink, red and purple girl.
And my midwife never wanted me to wear black right after a birth.

Don’t remember wearing or not wearing black, but refused to wear pink for YEARS. Then I turned 18 and figured out I actually liked it!