Last week, at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Smash Box Studios during Fashion Week L.A., it happened over and over again. Over the course of five days of fashion shows, a parade of models strutted down the runway in black after black outfit.

If the designers were feeling really creative there was grey over black, a black and white shemagh, an ochre belt over a grey tunic, a black tunic over blue jeans. Though I found the silhouettes, details, and tailoring impeccable, I wondered why the designers had chosen so few colors. Would fashionistas be adding yet more black clothing to their closets?

Obviously, the Pantone Fashion Color Report had little or no influence on this crop of designers. Unbeknown to many, the colors we wear are picked out years in advance by a panel of arbiters, designers, color, and textile experts. They do this years in advance so the textile makers will know what colors to make, so designers can plan their collections, so editors can layout the pages of magazines, and retail buyers will anticipate the next trend.

Pantone, Inc. is a color think tank that studies how colors effect people. They also develop the well-known Pantone Color Swatch book that every design and art student is introduced to when they start school. From this book, which encompasses both shade and hue (and is also updated), the colors we wear are selected.

The colors chosen for Fall 2008 range from Ochre to Blue Iris. There's a shade called Aurora Red, which I predict, along with a purple called Royal Lilac, will be the biggest colors in autumn.

It made little sense to me to see collections that were almost exclusively black, with occasional speed bumps of lilac. Why was this? Fashion is art, so could they be responding to the tumultuous times we live in?

It wasn't lost on me that there were many tailored jackets with epaulets, and most looked like uniforms. The Monarchy Collection, a luxe line of denims, was like a John LeCarré fashion show come to life.

Men in horn rimmed glasses, as though purchased from a state-owned optometry store, shared the runway with others in hand knit earphones and Russian fur hats. A few models, with plain colored shemaghs wrapped around their heads, strutted forth in a disconsolate manner. Which war were they fighting?