The Black Gold

No no no no no. I was not talking about the commodities when I said black gold. I am very, if not super, amateurish when it comes to this sort of investments. And in case you are wondering, I know what black gold may refer to. Coffee, Guinness and coal, just to name a few. Super valuable stuff in black in general, I suppose. Internet is the best - according to Wikipedia, black gold can also refer to petroleum. That makes sense. I wonder if that was at least partially why Diesel named one of their collections Black Gold.

But seriously, I was merely referring to the black and gold combination in the fashion world. And I meant the colors. Nothing more. I swear! Elizabeth Hurley did it way back in 1994. So did Madonna not so long ago at the Superbowl halftime show. And speaking of Hurley, who would forget THE Versace dress? It was one of those fashion fairy tales - the girl got famous and the label became a household name. It even has its own Wikipedia page for crying out loud.

Back in the days when Lanvin was not the same Lanvin as we know today, my mother had this black calf leather purse from the fashion house with a little gold plated closure. It was so pretty and yet so bad taste in a way that at my young age I simply could not put an equal sign between tasteful and the golden color. It was a bit tacky to me - I always thought silver was cool, and gold, I am sorry to say, was for people who just could not stop screaming “me me me me me me!”

I have hardly seen men in black and gold. Once or twice maybe, but not so often. I remembered bumping into a mainland Chinese guy as I was walking into a 5-star hotel in Hong Kong, and the only memorable thing about him was his black leather Hermès belt with a gold buckle. Oh well.

And there was this ensemble from the Jean Paul Gaultier fall collection 2011. I don’t know what to say, really. Maybe except to say that it was hmmm... shiny?


And here we are in 2012.

I am not sure if they held some kind of a secret conference or something before they finalized on the designs, but this season we see three labels making men's shoes in the black and gold combo. Speaking of coincidence, right?


When I first saw Raf’s show, I was amazed by the shoes. The gold chains were so fabulously camp but then I started to worry if the chains would fall off from the shoes. It is not going to be pretty specially if it happens when you are strutting down the street, and mind you they are 1.5 inch heel shoes! And I fell in love with the Marc Jacobs oxfords. I was so determined to get them that I made contact to three different stores around the world. The gold plates are lovely and cool at the same time. I am crossing my fingers they won’t fall off in a heartbeat. Hopefully those screws are for real…

Last but not least is this pair by Maison Martin Margiela. I know. I know. Margiela is no longer designed by Margiela, but honestly can they at least try to keep his legacy a little better? I mean, gold paint over black shoes? Seriously?

What do you think?