Beards & Black Make a Comeback

Twenty-eight out of thirty-one: that’s the proportion of fashion editors spotted sporting all black in the front row of Calvin Klein’s pre-fall show last Tuesday. And that wasn’t the only show at which the dark, monochromatic look surfaced. It was everywhere, says Eric Wilson in today’s New York Times. “The fashion crowd hasn’t looked this dark since the early 1990s,” Wilson muses. “Like fashion’s version of comfort food,” the color is making a comeback thanks to the onset of cold weather and an even chillier economy.

And black isn’t the only fashion statement garnering a recent flood of face-time. As we’ve noted in the past, beards are back too. “Facial hair is showing up on one or more former corporate types ... for many men, growing that unemployment beard is akin to a tame dance at a bachelor party—a momentary freedom enjoyed while the rules are suspended,” says the Wall Street Journal. From Al Gore to the Foo Fighters and Kings of Leon, men from all walks of life are forgoing shaving for scruff. Besides, times are tough. Be it a lap dance, an all-black ensemble or a goatee à la Brad Pitt, why not live a little?