Believe it or not, the ‘Poet of Black’ frequently creates clothing with striking colors, particularly in his recent collections. Sure, Y’s and the mainline Yohji collections have features colorful blues, reds, tans and browns for decades. But in the past 10 years, Yohji has offset his typically dark fare with vibrant patterns and bright colors. This collection was a refutation of critics claiming that Yohji’s collections were getting stale, that the designer hadn’t displayed anything new in years. As a response, this year’s runway featured patterned hakama pants, oversized blue shirts and suits and plenty of clothes in a combination of grey and beige occasionally referred to by the Japanese as ‘greige’. Even some of the “quintessentially-Yohji” black suits featured hits of grey and layers of beige or blue. Yohji’s recent collections could be viewed as a kind of victory lap for the renowned designer; as Yohji enjoys the renewed critical and financial success of his labels, he has employed a relaxed approach to reinventing his label’s standard fare, exemplified by his experiments in color.

Croatian designer Damir Doma’s eponymous label is well-regarded for its wearable, yet exploratory, takes on flowing, layered clothing. The label also produces an affordable, goth-wardrobe-friendly Silent diffusion line, often produced in muted tones of grey, brown and black. Recently, Doma’s line has hewn closer to familiar silhouettes and contemporary clothes, but in 2010, Damir Doma’s sent perhaps his most exciting menswear collection down the runway. The clothes recalled the futuristic nomad clothing worn by the characters of Star Wars, with relaxed layers draping across most of the looks, along with plenty of collarless outerwear. Every outfit was styled with garments that were either black, white, grey, or an arresting shade of red.

This collection was Doma’s forward-thinking take on what was essentially a series of capsule collections, with each set of black, white, grey, or red garments making up a small but versatile wardrobe. Another facet of the color schemes is how they affected the visibility of each outfit’s details: the all-black outfits allow the audience to focus primarily on the silhouette, whereas the lighter-colored outfits create the clarity of individual details. This is a technique utilized, to some extent, in Craig Green’s Fall/Winter 2013 collection. Though this wasn’t the first or last time an adventurous designer sent a jarring color down the runway, this remains one of the best and most exciting examples of color juxtaposition within an avant-garde collection.

Rick’s collections have consistently deviated from the typically dark look shown by other quintessentially “goth” brands, although, most of his devotees probably prefer the consistency of an all-black wardrobe. The Spring 2014 women’s ready-to-wear show garnered a lot of attention for the presentation, which involved an intricate step team exhibition, but the collection itself was quite remarkable. Like Damir Doma’s Spring/Summer 2010 show, Rick’s collection was primarily divided into three color schemes: black, white and tan. Whereas few people would attempt to wear the Doma collection as it was styled on the runway, however, Rick fans could easily pull off the looks shown during the presentation—most of it was typical Rick fare, T-shirts, shorts, outerwear and dresses. That said, any Rick disciple will admit that “typical Rick fare” means clothing that looks pretty bizarre to people not clued in to Rick’s clothing.

This collection is notable because it coincidentally developed upon the concept demonstrated by Doma’s collection; avant-garde clothing can exist in shades other than black. Doma’s collection was an aggressive manifestation of this idea, Rick’s take on this idea was tamer. White and tan clothing is much less intimidating to add to a wardrobe of mostly black clothes than saturated red. If nothing else, the collection is a confirmation of a few things: progressive designers need not restrict their output by palette, color doesn’t hinder the wearability of clothing and adding punches of color (no matter how overt) won’t negate the creativity of the final product on the runway.

Most people wearing avant-garde clothes stick to their guns. They want black gloves, black hats and black shoes to complement their black shirts, pants and jackets. There’s nothing wrong with cohesion, but for this collection, Boris Bidjan Saberi obliterated the typical avant-garde color palette. A richly warm color palette informed his Fall/Winter 2015 collection, which included red sweaters and leather coats. One core tenet of the stalwartly avant-garde is their reluctance to deviate from the safety of a uniformly dark wardrobe. Boris produces plenty of black clothes, but he also creates an endless series of bright garments that go completely against the grain. The Spring/Summer 2016 and 2017 collections featured bold blue and yellow outfits, respectively, with some greens and greys sprinkled throughout.

For Fall/Winter 2015, even the darker looks were offset with white accessories and clothes. Inverting the colors of innocuous pieces reinvents conventional looks, making what was old, new once again. The unapologetically loud colors recall the jarring looks shown by Damir Doma and Rick Owens, but unlike those designers, Boris melds the colors into the looks. It’s not accurate to say that the collection incorporates color naturally, but that’s not the point. The colors should be bold, loud and aggressive, because they draw attention, and that’s the intention; they say, “look at me”, while rejecting the comfortable normality of dark clothing. It takes a certain level of courageousness (or unawareness) to throw on a yellow leather jacket and leave the house, preferably wearing the matching pants and shirt. Boris’ experiments with color stand as confident adjustments to the avant-garde playbook. The looks incorporate familiar silhouettes and pieces, when they’re drenched in color, these conventional styles become fresh again.

Naturally, this is the tip of the iceberg; experimental, avant-garde designers have been producing clothes that aren’t black for years. That in itself is not revolutionary. Comme des Garçons, Yohji Yamamoto, Issey Miyake, Ann Demeulemeester, Hussein Chalayan and more have worked with color for decades, and labels ranging from Julius to MA+, from Elena Dawson to Taichi Murakami carry that color-drenched torch contemporaneously. What’s important to consider, is that these specific moments highlight a point where an avant-garde designer eschewed black—or rather, indirectly, “traditional”—clothing and styling for something different. These collections are important because they refute the common conjecture that these designers only make black clothing, and that dark clothing helps adds to a garment’s or designer’s cerebral or “serious” perspective. It’s unfortunate when the breadth of a designer’s output is undermined by misconceptions, because the avant-garde designers are generally more than the sum of their parts. Needless to say, there’s a lot more happening than black T-shirts and swollen sneakers.