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“I wear black on the outside because black is how I feel on the inside”
– from “Unloveable” by Morrisey
Why do architects wear black? Just about the only other people that wear black, aside from Johnny Cash, are morticians. Ask some clients about their architects, and they’ll tell you that from a financial aspect, that fits. A lot of artists wear black, which has to do with the unbearable weight of the universe that all artists carry (black seems to carry more universe). Maybe some architects feel they are also artists (or at least artistic) and so also need to carry a bit of the universe and hence, need also to have a black turtleneck in their wardrobe.
I think that a lot of the reason that architects don’t wear colourful clothing has to do with the almost religious way that ornament is ironed (or beaten) out of every single student during their studies. If a cornice is a crime, them maybe anything other than RAL 9000 (the official moniker for the colour black in Germany) is also a crime. And in an environment where the philosophy is “If it’s not explicitly allowed, then it’s definitely prohibited”, then no one will dare to wear a pink shirt, for fear of being arrested by the “Taste-Police” or worse, being looked down upon from those with no colour in their clothes, but big chunks of the universe on their shoulders. It’s not as though once you’ve put on a purple cardigan, you’re not allowed to wear that Hugo Boss jacket again, but the scorning looks could make you feel that way.
Maybe if we taught about colour in the Schools of Architecture, then the next generation of architects might grow into using it more often (and sorry, a red line running through black and white drawings is NOT a brave use of colour). They would have to endure the wrath of the god-like professors who disdain the use of something so pedestrian as FFFF10 and perhaps even risk being laughed at by supeior beings such as those in higher semesters. But gradually, they would perhaps sport a bit of colour in the facades and interiors of their projects, allow some chroma in their presentations, and even let something so rude as C, M, or Y creep onto their business cards. At that point, the act of wearing a searsucker suit, is just another likeable decision on the road to making the world a more enjoyable place to live.
“Black is not a colour. Colour is a matter of taste and of sensitivity.”
– Edouard Manet
