The Little Black Envelope

With the Fall-Winter 2010 Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week a mere three days away, my mailbox is flooding with invites promising a gateway to couture’s elite, up-and-coming, and emerging designers.

And while New York is known as the fashion capital of the country, where black is the only appropriate color for every occasion, and the phrase “(insert your color here) is the new black” doesn’t fly, I was struck by the sheer amount of black envelopes that arrived at my desk. They came from PR giant Laforce+Stevens, Seventh House, and countless others.

Which made me wonder: Did they all get the bulk discount on matte black organic-paper envelopes? I know times are tough and businesses have to do whatever they can to cut costs and maximize returns, hence the many more email invites, but if you’re going to go out and try to stand out from the sea of other mail day in and day out, I think a less obvious color palette would do the trick.

Now, I’m a lover of black myself and actually recently noticed that nearly all of the work pants I own are various shades of ebony minus a navy pair and a charcoal pair (close enough), but looking at the nondescript envelopes littering my workspace, I couldn’t help but feel that fashion is at a crossroads.

Sure, the economy is still in trouble and that historically has meant a return to lower hemlines, more conservative and polished styles, and less color walking down the runway. And, granted, the lucky few of us who get to attend the shows and fanfare—or have a glimpse on TV—are previewing the more lackluster of the biannual cycles, shades of recovery are conspicuously missing.

Here’s hoping to see more than just the predictable gray, chocolate, navy, slate, and black walking down the runways in a few days.