Wearing black - an example from the Emmy awards 2021
Quite the sensation that a Norwegian production, Atlantic Crossing, won an Emmy for best film/mini-series.
Atlantic Crossing is about the Crown Princess Märtha and the Crown Prince Olav (who went on to become our beloved king for many years), during WW2 when they were in exile. HRH Olav and his father the King Haakon were in England and HRH Märtha was in the USA with the children (among them the little Prince Harald, who succeeded HRH Olav and is now our present King).
HRH Märtha was a beauty and a very elegant woman, and in the mini-series she is portrayed by Sofia Helin (who is famous for her role as Saga in the Netflix drama series The Bridge, one of my all-time favourite series). Link to the article here (It's in Norwegian).
You and me are probably the same way, our focus is part content, part colour.
Content: 10/10, I'm so proud that a Norwegian TV series has won an Emmy!
Colour I have a couple of things to say about.
Sofia Helin wearing black
Stylists have style expression as top priority and they had chosen for her a delicious gold/silver heavy silk brocade skirt, and contrasting it with a black turtleneck.
And I have to give them points for alleviating the effect of the black turtleneck on Sofia Helin by layering lots of pearls and gold necklaces and a pair of stunning gold earrings.
I'm not a stylist, but as a colour analyst I would probably have chosen a lower contrast level for her outfit, but the stylist rescue team had done a good job of minimising the devastating effect of the black up against her face with the pearls.
The team of stylists have their reasons. Maybe the whole team of actors and director were dressed in the same colour scheme of black, white and gold, I don't know.
But she does look a little tired and completely disappears behind the wall of black, despite being wrapped in pearls and gold.
Sofia Helin wearing cream and teal
Compare the image of Helin in black with another image from further down in the same article.
Here she is dressed in vanilla ice cream white, and draped in a teal green faux-fur shawl.
In this photo, I'm connecting more with her face and eyes, despite wearing far less eye makeup in this photo than in the award ceremony image.
Minimising the effect of black by wearing necklaces (or a scarf) up against your face is a well known trick, and certainly does help.
I'm all for that. But how about taking a close look at how we use black, and finding better alternatives?
Black is an easy choice. Too easy. You deserve better, and the fashion industry will not change unless we stop buying black and start buying and using other colours.