The most frequently asked question at Woodstock Design is "does this make my ass look big?"

Always Wear Black by Robin Kramer
One of the tricks I've learned in 30 years in the clothing business is to always wear black. It makes you look taller, thinner; more sophisticated and doesn't show dirt. It also makes all your clothes go with each other.
I have noticed that men designers usually find one look and always stick with it--Calvin Klein with his white T-shirts and khaki pants and Ralph Lauren in his faded denim. Every morning when you get up and look in your closet you shouldn't have to reinvent the wheel. I have a stack of black pants on my shelf--linen for summer and cotton cashmere for winter. I wear black T-shirts and sweaters, and for a little change I'll put a white T-shirt under a black V-neck. Tina Chow was my role model.
I grew up knowing nothing about clothes. I had to wear my cousin Francis' frilly dresses from Lord and Taylor, when I wanted nothing more than a pair of Levi’s and a T-shirt. We were too poor to buy Levi's so I had to settle for Wrangler's. I wanted a pair of boys’ shoes from Tom McCann. My mother's maj jongg friends worried about me, but my mother was sure that I would outgrow this phase.
When I was in the fifth grade I remember happily wearing my new quilted black skirt with little flowers on it, with a black plaid flannel shirt. My friend Isobel took me aside to whisper, "you're not supposed to wear two different prints together." Who knew?
I remember when I fell in love with black. It was my first black turtleneck to wear with jeans in my sophomore year of college. That was the perfect outfit to wear to Gerde's to see Bob Dylan or the Greenbrier Boys. It portrayed the beatnik intellectual look that I was going for. It was just the thing to wear to the "Fat Black Pussycat" and watch the hipsters play chess. If Mike and I got lucky and found a place to sleep together, it was the one color that I could wear to school the next day without anyone realizing that I had slept in my clothes.
New York City is known as a place where every sophisticate or bohemian is dressed in black. One of my customers told me about the time she was in an airport in Italy and there was a large group of people in black. "Is that some kind of cult?" a woman from the Midwest asked her. "No, they're from New York."
I have two kinds of customers. The first comes in and says she wants to buy something other than black. Everything she owns is black. She'll look around the store, and she's more likely than not to buy something else in black. The other kind of customer comes in and knows that all she wears is black. There is no such thing for her as too much black.
There are those who say to me that black washes them out. I tell them that's why they invented blush. There are others who say they like color. Fine, I say. It's a free country, wear what you want.
If you want to lose ten pounds without having to diet, if you want to pack lightly for a trip around the world, if you want to be ready for anything--go black. You will always have the appropriate thing to wear to a funeral, or a peace rally.
Many of my customers are authors going on book tours, or the heads of all kinds of organizations and they have to travel and give presentations, By sticking with all black, they are assured that everything in the suitcase goes with everything else and black doesn't show creases the way color does.
Black has the singular distinction of being a classic. When you buy something in black it becomes something you can wear, without fear that it is out of style.
The most frequently asked question at Woodstock Design is "does this make my ass look big?" Chances are, if you're wearing black the answer is "no".