Black nails are here, face it. Paint it.

Each time neo-goth waifs strut the runways, velour rules in fabrics, and maxi skirts swipe the floor, black nails are there. Just like the purple eye shadow and bold liner, these things come in flocks.

Wearing black nail polish is nothing new to those who embraced the first black nail polish craze in mid-1990s ignited by Tom Ford for Gucci. At those happy days when people followed fashion trends meticulously, I was wearing a ring with a tiny charm in my black pinky finger nail - copied from the Gucci ad shot by Mario Testino. Man, was it impractical. Man, was it sexy.

Today black nail polishes are exactly the same. Opaque and bold, they have a delicate sheen of steel or bronze - if there's delicate is the word to be used when talking black nail polish.

I wear my black nails with great pride. And even though I still use the five-year-old Jet-Dry L'Oreal polish (which magically hasn't gone dry), there are a few decent shades to go crazy with.

The blackest of all is Rimmel's Black Satin - no-nonsense, true opaque black, best reserved for that Comme Des Garcons outfit worn to the art exhibit. The softer version is Burgundy Chic by Cover Girl - when painted in two layers, it's almost black, in Chanel Vamp way.

Speaking of outfit to go with black nail - or vice versa - I would suggest a black jacket with distressed jeans, a la Tom Ford, or black sweater and beret, sitting-on-a-coffin-drinking- coffee style. For the contrast, black nails look extremely sophisticated with crisp white shirt and of course, with your favourite black dress.

But not with tweeds, unless you scored a tweed motorcycle Chanel jacket, lucky you.

Yours truly,
Julie Gabriel

Photo: fragment of a Gucci ad from 1999, photographed by Mario Testino. 

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