A Letter from FASHION‘s Editor-in-Chief

Fashion pros famously wear a lot of black—and I’m no exception.

It started early. I have a distinct memory of shopping for clothes with my aunt in an open-air market in Kyiv when I was 12 and pleadingly eyeing a black polo shirt only to be told that it was a “serious” colour best suited to older girls. By high school, enabled by a debit card loaded with funds from a barista gig, I was wearing black almost daily—as I still do today. I’d like to think I look good in it, like most of us. After all, there’s a reason they call it a little black dress.

Yet, I recall a day last spring when I decided to wear a silk wrap blouse printed in happy watercolour florals. Cue the “Wow, you look so nice today!” comments. And when I was on a work trip last fall, a near-stranger told me “You should wear that colour more” when I stepped into the hotel lobby dressed in a long-sleeved tee the colour of oat milk. Have I been getting this colour thing all wrong?

Clarity came to me in the form of a QR code posted in a shop window in the concourse of the Holt Renfrew Centre. I passed by it on my way to a breakfast meeting nearby, slowing down just enough to snap a picture. The next day, I booked myself in for a classic colour-analysis appointment at W10, a style consultancy founded by Miriam Palmer that offers custom-made clothing, ready-to-wear and wardrobe and makeup consults rooted in the original colour-analysis teachings that gained popularity in the late ’70s and early ’80s.

Even if you’ve never had one done, you probably know what a colour analysis entails: You sit in a chair in front of a mirror, your hair pulled away from your makeup-free face and a white sheet covering you below your clavicles. Various colourful fabric swatches are laid across your shoulder or held near your face to determine which season you are—Summer, Autumn, Winter or Spring—with additional nuances for depth, contrast and tone. The goal is to determine whether you are light or dark, are warm or cool and have high or low contrast features so you can achieve harmony with your natural complexion.

Devisha Binns, who became business partners with Palmer, her mother, at W10 in 2021, was the one doing my analysis. We started with a “metal test” in which she held two metallic fabric swatches near my face—one silver, the other gold. Verdict? Gold. We then moved on to applying swatches relating to each of the four seasons, seeing if my complexion was brightened or dulled, glowing or washed out against each of the palettes.

“You have neutral undertones that lean warm,” Binns told me before declaring me a “Clear Spring.” Translation? I look best in bright, clear hues with little to no grey undertones or muddiness—coral instead of bubble-gum pink, butter yellow rather than lemon. “And what about black?” I asked, already fearing the answer. “You should opt for navy or brown,” Binns said.

Fashion pros famously wear a lot of black—and I’m no exception.

“Doing this will totally change the way you approach col­our,” added Binns, handing me a little black book of swatches—my Clear Spring palette. I instantly imagined toting it around to go shopping or holding it up against blush samples at a Sephora stall. I even briefly considered repainting my walls a creamier shade of white.

Why does this decades-old analog method feel so relevant in 2026? In an era of trend overwhelm and near-endless options, it’s freeing to narrow the choices with a directive that bolsters conviction in what you do buy. (For what it’s worth, we’re betting on purples in this issue) “I want to see you walking by in some colours,” Binns quipped as I left, shrouded in my go-to black coat.

Ultimately, I decided to approach my Clear Spring classification the same way I consider my horoscope or Myers-Briggs type: take what appeals and leave what doesn’t. As for black? Everything in moderation, they say.

Warmly,

Liz Guber

This article first appeared in FASHION’s April 2026 issue. Read more stories from the April 2026 issue here, and subscribe to FASHION here.