I'm a French Writer and Editor—My Relationship With Black and Why It's Never Neutral
Power, comfort, and elegance.
Eugénie Trochu is a Who What Wear editor in residence known for her transformative work at Vogue France and her Substack newsletter, where she documents and shares new trends, her no-nonsense approach to fashion and style, plus other musings. She's also working on her upcoming first book that explores fashion as a space of memory, projection, and reinvention.
Is black, yes or no, a color? Science and art history have been clashing over this seemingly simple yet highly complex question for centuries. From a physical standpoint, black is the absence of light, therefore the absence of color. At the other end of the spectrum, white is the sum of all wavelengths.
For me, black is charged with meaning, intention, control. It's not an absence of color. It's a position, a framework, a way of presenting oneself to the world. Over time, I've understood what it does to my body, my posture, my presence. Black cuts through.
Black as Power
There's a reason black has long been the uniform of authority figures, artists, intellectuals, and women who have no desire to negotiate their legitimacy. Black doesn't seek approval. Wearing black removes a layer of explanation. It's a way of being taken seriously without asking to be liked.
Black as Comfort
Black is often associated with something harsh or strict. That's false. It protects. It reassures. It absorbs chaos. On days that are too full and too loud, black acts like a refuge. It allows you to disappear just a little, to avoid dealing with questions of color, coordination, of "Does this go together?"
Black as Real Elegance
The elegance of black isn't decorative; it's structural. It rests on cuts, fabrics, proportions. In black, nothing cheats. A poorly cut garment is immediately visible. A beautiful fabric too. That may be why it ages so well. A black coat worn for 10 years tells more stories than a statement piece worn for a single season. It moves through time, trends, and moods.
As proof, here are my favorite black pieces of the season—well-made, meant to be kept for life.
