T: Made in the Shade

April 8, 2008 / Add comment

"Black conceals, black blends, black protects, but it almost never stands out," Hirschberg laments as she deconstructs the modern obsession with the "depressing" color. The pressure to lose herself in its camouflaging effects began at age 11, when she moved to Los Angeles, where girls wore black as a symbol of advanced status or age. Now a fashion writer on the East Coast, Hirschberg extols the virtues of color and giddily recounts the kaleidoscopic showings at the recent New York City Fashion Week, where "nearly every gown was awash in layers of jewel tones."