Every beginning is white. The piece of paper on which an author writes their first words. The canvas which a painter will turn into a work of art. The screen before a movie starts. In Western culture there’s a sad history of using ideas of light and dark to reinforce racial prejudice. But in terms purely of visual color, whiteness does have great power. White is nothing and, simultaneously, everything. White is the good, the pure, the immaculate. Think of the famous ballet “Swan Lake”, during which our heart instinctively goes out to the noble white swan.
The color white accompanies us throughout our lives. As soon as we leave the darkness of our mother’s womb, we see brightness, whiteness. A bride wears white to her wedding, as a baby does at its christening. Every man needs a white shirt, every woman a white blouse, every teenager a white T-shirt. We sleep and make love in lily-white sheets. And we try to keep a clean conscience.
Even at the end of our days there’s whiteness. People who have been through near-death experiences describe walking through a tunnel towards a dazzling white light. It seems the afterlife and eternity are colored white, too.
White is the most elementary color — the mother of all colors — and naturally it has left its mark on fashion right up to the present. Virtually all designers have drawn on the creative possibilities of whiteness, and this book collects some of the most striking and fascinating examples of how they have done so. So: sit back and feel the magic of the brightest, most versatile color of them all!
ıs that can be dreamswith
