For myself, I've never been a fan of lots of black in my wardrobe. Browns, blues, and tans have always been more flattering with my personal coloring. However, I always had black in my wardrobe because it's really easy to find in stores. Black is almost always one of the color options available.
Also, I was influenced by the repetitive advice that black is slimming and minimal (ie makes dressing easy to do because everything pairs with black). Plus I will admit when it comes to business clothing and travel, black is very easy to work with. (Doesn't usually show, dirt, stain, or wrinkles easily).
I made the decision last year to shift my core away from black and focus more on the blues. With my style adjectives of casual, colorful, soft, and playful, black isn't a color I tend to reach for with my outfits. I heavily favor outfits with colors from head to toe and if I want a neutral I'm looking for a lower contrast look (tans, browns, creams, navy, grey) vs the high contrast look of black.
I doubt black will ever be 100% out of my wardrobe. Some of my black pieces are sentimental. But my current preference is to shift away from black as my go to core color, so that I can sport softer neutrals and more colorful outfits during this leg of my style journey.
I don't think age has anything to do with wearing black or not. I've seen mature women with white or grey or silver hair that look stunning in all black outfits and others, who look washed out. I think one's personal coloring will affect how well high or low contrast colors flatter as well as personal preference.
I also think anyone can wear black in some way. Maybe it's just with accessories or only on the bottom half of an outfit. Or, for some people they may like only wearing black near their face. Joan Rivers was great at this. She often wore a column of black, but people didn't notice because she offset the black by having it paired with colorful blazers and jackets.
