black as the color of refusal

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

Judith Thurman in The New Yorker, 7/4/05, on japanese fashion
designer Rei Kawakubo:

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The palette was monochrome, with a little ash mixed into the soot,
and one hears it vsaid thatr Kawakubo "invented black"--it is one of
the "objective achievements" cited by the Harvard school of design
when it gave her an Excellence in Design Award in 2000.  What she
objectively achieved was the revival of black's cachet as the color
of refusal.
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color of refusal?  is this something i should have known about before?

arnold