Flack over black fails to impress this dyed-in-the wool fashionista

Black flatters most skins, slims the figure and imparts an air of dignity.
SCRIPPS HOWARD
Every spring, the grumbling begins.
Give us color, please. Brighten winter's drab palette. We need rainbows and sunny sparks.
Whether this is the voice of the fashion marketing machine or an original consumer desire, it's hard to say. In any case, don't bring up the subject with Ann Carr. She's not interested.
Carr loves black. She's one of an army of fashionistas who swear by the dark power, despite the recent color resurgence.
Black, devotees say, is an instant dose of chic. It flatters most skins, slims the figure and imparts an air of dignity. And perhaps no color is more versatile. Black can be somber or sacred or the ultimate in sexy. Think funerals, nuns and fishnets.
"I don't even look at anything else in a store," says the 50-year-old Washington, D.C., resident. "There is an elegance about the look that no color can touch."
Her penchant for black started in childhood. Girlie pastels were never her thing. "I vaguely remember starting to wear black as soon as it was feasible," she recalls.
By the time she moved to D.C. in her early 20s, she was hooked. So much so that the suggestion of her boss at Freddie Mac, where Carr works as an internal organization development consultant, to adopt a softer, colorful image met with a firm "no."
Carr doesn't want to blur her edges, and black is easy on the eyes, crisp and direct. "You don't fade into the wardrobe background," she says. She calls her signature style "refined edgy."
She sees no reason to lighten up.
"Black is like diamonds. Black is perfect like diamonds are perfect," she explains. "Why mess with it?"