Why wear black?
Black exudes elegance and gives you a distinctive, yet subtle look when incorporated into an outfit. In that sense, black is a great colour choice as it achieves that elusive balance between the need to look unique and stylish, yet remaining understated so as to avoid looking pretentious.
For that reason, we find it is the ideal colour for dates, evening wear, when going out with friends for dinner, or visiting a gallery, and any other occasion you want a more elevated look but you are loath to carry on wearing the same corporate outfit you had on all week during the day, but still want to look neat and sophisticated, and avoid looking too casual by diving into your cotton jersey tops and bottoms.
See below an illustrative example. The bottom half of the outfit remains the same, a simple pair of flannel trousers, but see how on the right, the outfit with the cashmere polo shirt in black looks more elevated and appropriate for events or “going out”, whilst the outfit on the left with the cashmere polo shirt in navy may be a better choice for office attire or casual settings. As our navy is a very dark navy, it is similar to the black, but there is a subtle difference:
What bottoms to wear black with?
There is a sense of formality to black, and so we find it goes best with bottoms made in formal cloths, which are at either end of the colour spectrum, i.e. dark coloured, or light coloured (cream or white).
Black with denim
Here is an example of black being styled with dark denim. A mid blue denim could work too, but in our view, the darker the better with black.
Here we have styled our superfine lambswool shawl collar cardigan in black with a pair of dark denim. This pair of denim has a greyish black undertone which further helps complement the black.
In this second example, we styled our cashmere Belmondo rollneck in black with our cashmere alpine half zip in grey melange, together with a pair of dark denim. We’ve layered over the top a black leather jacket, which further goes to demonstrate how well dark denim goes with black.
Black with grey trousers
Grey is black’s best friend when it comes to colour combination. If you, like many others, have plentiful grey trousers, you are in luck. Black goes well with the full breadth of grey tones, from light grey to dark grey and charcoal. Some examples below.
Black with mid grey trousers:
Cashmere alpine half zip in black, cashmere Belmondo rollneck in wine and mid grey flannel trousers:
Cashmere polo shirt in black and mid grey flannel trousers:
Black with (darker) charcoal trousers
Cashmere Belmondo rollneck in black, charcoal trousers and suit jacket. The charcoal trousers are darker than the mid grey flannels in the two pictures above, but they still work well with the black rollneck:
Black with white bottoms
Given the contrast, black also works well with white, as can be seen in the example below.
Cashmere Belmondo rollneck in black with cream trousers:
How to layer black knitwear?
As mentioned before, grey, being black’s best friend, we thought it useful to start with this combination. Depending on the piece of knitwear in black you have, there are a number of different ways you can combine it.
If you have a mid layer in black
If you have a milayer in black, like the cashmere Belmondo rollneck in black or the cashmere ribbed submariner in black, you can wear it with another piece of knitwear in grey over the top, or other pieces of clothing, such as a suit.
Our first example below is a formal one and simple one, our cashmere Belmondo rolllneck in black with a charcoal suit. If you prefer something warmer, then you can equally wear our cashmere ribbed submariner rollneck in black underneath.
There is a simplicity and elegance to the charcoal being paired with the black, and the black knitwear, being a rollneck, helps to further create an elevated look (whereas a crew neck would have made the outfit more casual).
A variation of the above, but you may also wish to layer our cashmere polo shirt in grey melange in between the cashmere Belmondo rollneck in black and the charcoal suit jacket, like so:
It is a more unique combination of clothes, and plays on the harmonious tonal combination between the grey polo and charcoal suit, together with the black rollneck which goes well with all shades of grey as previously mentioned.
If you want a casual spin to this outfit, take off the charcoal suit jacket and change into a pair of cream trousers, the white, black and grey working well together to form a monochrome pallet:
If it gets cold and you want to remain casual, swap our cashmere polo shirt in grey melange for our superfine lambswool shawl collar cardigan in grey melange:
A final example, cashmere Belmondo rollneck in black with cashmere alpine half zip in grey melange:
If you have an outer layer in black
If you have an outer layer in black, such as our cashmere alpine half zip in black, the cashmere painter’s shawl collar cardigan in black or the superfine lambswool shawl collar cardigan in black, you can wear it over the top of other dark, rich colours, such as burgundy, dark olive, navy, grey.
Here are some examples:
Cashmere alpine half zip in black with cashmere Belmondo rollneck in wine:
Cashmere painter’s shawl collar cardigan in black with cashmere ribbed submariner rollneck in dark olive:
Another example combining black with dark green, this time, with our cashmere painter's shawl collar cardigan in black and merino father's polo shirt in forest green (now out of stock, please see our cashmere polo shirt in dark olive instead which will go equally well with black):
Superfine lambswool shawl collar cardigan in black with cashmere ribbed sumbariner rollneck in grey melange:
