The black arts, Yazzy's at www.williamverdult.com

According to the Fairfax Digital in Australia Black is always the new black at an exhibition that celebrates its many fashionable guises. Rachel Wells highlights some pieces.

It's unnerving, walking into the small, dark gallery of the National Gallery of Victoria International that houses part of the Black in Fashion: Mourning to Night exhibition. There are black silhouettes everywhere. Some of the shadowy figures in the glass cases stand tall and glamorous, such as the mannequin draped in Gianni Versace's magnificent "exit" dress of 1990. But others - such as the 19th-century mourning gowns in the centre of the exhibition - loom like ghosts: gloomy and morose.

In between, there are eccentric black forms - outfits created by the likes of Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto that seem to defy the rules of design, sometimes even gravity, in a way that only Japanese designers can get away with. Then there are sinister shapes with studs and spikes - rebellious remnants from the punk movement of the 1970s.

Throughout history, black clothing has carried many and often contradictory meanings. As far back as Roman times, it has symbolised grief and mourning. It's been stylish since at least the mid-15th century, when Phillip the Good, the Duke of Burgundy, adopted black dress throughout his reign.

Add to that subversive, subcultural black of punks, goths and emos, and the sexy glamour of designer evening wear.
All these meanings, and more, are explored in Black in Fashion: Mourning to Night, featuring more than 70 garments and paintings, from the 17th century to the present, now at the NGV.