I'll be clutching my blacks in my cold dead hands!
I wore all earth tones in the 70's (as we all did, along with our jeans), with brown as my neutral, even though it made my brown hair look greenish and I looked better in faded denim with white! Then Colour me Beautiful came out, and I realized I was a Winter. Even then, I avoided black thinking it would be too harsh, until the 90's when it was everywhere.
And now I won't be parted from it. It flatters me like nothing else. Black, worn next to my face, with no make-up and a night of no sleep, still makes me look alive. I can wear grey or navy as neutrals, but need to add brightness near my face if do.
I won't wear all black unrelieved, unless singing in a choir, because I'm not a goth. I add a bit of red or white usually for contrast. But I'll never let it go.
I read a while back (Nora Ephron maybe?) that black-as-chic only became possible since the widespread use of hair dye, otherwise the effect would be "aging peasant widow" (and I can still see that in my mind's eye). But for me, the more salt I have mixed in with the pepper, I find that mid tones bring out a muddy grey whereas black brings out chic light streaks contrasting with the dark.
