Sitting on the London Underground the other day was a gloomy experience for me. Everyone on the platform and in my very crowded carriage was wearing a black coat or jacket (including me). These, paired with either black trousers or dark denim resulted in my buying bright red hat and bag in Kings Cross Station: anything to ward off the gloom and add a splash of colour to the uniform darkness.
Similarly a work colleague arrived and we started the usual 'commute journey' tale. Hers was different from the normal 'delayed on the Northern Line'. She said she'd seen a person in her carriage in a bright yellow coat. She had been instantly cheered by that single splash of colour in the sea of black.
At the Big Bang Data exhibition, I saw the visualization Colours in Cultures. It's a wonderful expression of the characteristics that colours are associated with in 10 broad-banded cultures (Western/American, African, etc). In only two of the ten - Western/American and Japanese - is black associated with anything other than evil, death, bad-luck, anger, unhappiness, penance and mourning. In those two cultures it is a colour of style albeit paradoxically also associated with death, mourning, etc. Is England a drab and gloomy culture that reflects in the black clothing? (There was a British sitcom called The Glums). Or is everyone thinking they look stylish in their black uniform?