Over time the color black has by turns been viewed as mysterious, as theatrical, and as sacred, and as a symbol of both nobility and the counterculture. In the new exhibition “BLACK: Masters of Black in Fashion & Costume,” on view through August 8th,Antwerp's MoMu museum examines the ever shifting idea of “the new black.”

The show is divided into 22 different sections, spanning the Middle Ages to the present. Until the late 17th century, dyeing fabric black was an arduous and expensive task, and those who could afford to wear it in the Renaissance were considered wealthy and stylish. The color also conferred a certain formality and respectability upon the wearer, which explains why many portrait subjects in paintings from the time are seen in it. And at the same time, the color was associated with mourning. Though it’s hard to imagine today, when black seems like an easy choice, it fell out of favor in the 18th century but re-emerged in the 19th in accessories and later as a trend of green-black in expensive gowns.

“BLACK” also looks at more contemporary fashion, from the black-clad femmes fatales of film noir to the stark, all-black collections of avant-garde designers like Ann Demeulemeeter, Commes de Garçons, and Gareth Pugh, whose sharp silhouettes and monochromatic use of color radically set them apart from everyday ready-to-wear. The exhibition also pays homage to goth, including corsets, crinolines, and a skull-shaped black leather handbag.

Around the time when black was shifting away from an upper-class color and becoming more popular among the middle class, Coco Chanel unveiled her “Ford T dress” in 1926, which became the archetypal black dress — despite similar pre-existing versions. Chanel promoted herself as a stylish new woman in her little back dress and cloche hat, and in the process democratized the color for women everywhere — while ironically also making it a coveted aspirational status symbol.