When I was growing up in the 70’s, it was unusual to see children in black. It was considered a “grown up” colour. Apart from a pair of black horse riding boots and equestrian dressage jacket (I was a very horse-y child), I don’t think I owned a single black wardrobe item! Our school uniform called for brown shoes, and as a very little girl, I wore fancy white patent shoes with pink, red and green party dresses.

But I desperately wanted them because black stuff looked so cool and “grown up”. So by age 13 (1983), I managed to convince my Mother that I needed an oversized one-button black blazer, much like the one Simon Le Bon from Duran Duran was wearing with a skinny black tie at the time. I padded up the shoulders so that I looked like I would topple over, and felt very fab. I wore that black jacket with everything.

And that was my first real black wardrobe item, soon to be followed by black pointy toed shoes, cropped black t-shirts, leggings and studded belts.

Today, lots of young children wear adorable black tops, bottoms, dresses, skirts and footwear. It’s not considered as much of a  grown up colour as it was back when I was little. Did you wear black when you were a child or teen? When did you first start wearing black wardrobe items?