I started buying ink as a dark neutral a few years ago and steadily accumulated more and more pieces as they came along. For me, it was just a case of being patient and keeping an eye open for the good stuff.

When it first appeared it was really only the premium brands who were doing it, so I began with a pair of tailored pants from Acne and a mini macintosh from Philip Lim (this was before he got really expensive, so a very happy score there). Both pieces are still with me and in regular circulation. It's filtered down since then and now it's much easier to buy. Now I have loads of it, including four coats. I love it.

As everyone up there says, it's interchangeable and very wearable with black and it works well with all shades of white and many brights. I also wear it with cognac and/or taupe accessories to soften it up a bit. And I prefer the ink-out effect to all black, which can fall rather flat on me.

All that said, I'm steadily working my way back to black right now. I'm using the same strategy as I used with ink - just being patient and waiting for the right things to come along. I'm enjoying it very much with bright accents and icy pastels at the moment.

Interesting how many people comfortably mix "almost" black with black -- I'll have to keep trying it. It's fine with me when it's part of a print, but in solids, it just feels off to mix a very dark blue item with a black item. I even tend to avoid it with shoes -- I'll usually choose a metallic instead!

I don't ever envision giving up black entirely. My coloring, which is very high contrast, generally works pretty well with black, I believe, although as I'm getting older, I do notice that softer darks may be a bit kinder on my aging skin. I really don't feel the need to abandon one neutral in favor of others, although I don't do very much in the brown-tan-taupe family, since I feel like grey and cooler neutrals usually work with my coloring (and go with my existing wardrobe) better. However, there are shades of brown that I do think work pretty well on me because they bring out the tones in my hair...well, at least the tones that are not grey!

I haven't read the responses yet. I have found that I like mixing black with ink blue, or cobalt and white with navy or black, or navy and ink. I didn't come up with cohesive combinations I love until I added several pairs of dark blue footwear, though. I have some navy pieces I just can't wear together, it can be as hard as matching blacks. Since I'm very much enjoying the availability of ink blue and navy lately I'm happily following this post.

Wow, what a great thread this turned out to be - tons of information! Thanks everyone! For interest, I am going to be doing another Project 333 for June/July/Aug and ink is going to feature VERY heavily - I picked up a few key pieces today (H&M) and will do a post on what I've assembled soon!