Radical Roots of the Little Black Dress: A History, in Pictures
From Coco Chanel to British Punk.
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Chic
The haute couturière Coco Chanel, is credited with inventing the little black dress (LBD). This is only partially true; there were many precursors. But Chanel was the first to take the self-effacing, austere black dress and make it undeniably chic. So we kick off this slideshow with Coco. Left to Right: Audrey Tautou as Coco Chanel and Marie Gillain as Adrienne in Coco Before Chanel (2009).
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Simple
Today we are accustomed to the sight of unadorned black dresses. But in the 1920s, as fashionable women tooted around wearing pastel sports clothes and sparkling evening dresses, Chanel elevated the black of maids to the height of fashion. Take a look at the simple lines of the famous “Ford” dress—this model is credited with being the first little black dress. It ran in Vogue’s October 1926 issue with a caption that read “The frock that all the word will wear.” Interpretation of Chanel’s “Ford” dress, from the October 1, 1926 issue of Vogue.
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Democratic
Chanel’s biographers love to point out that it was the designer’s early years as an orphan and seamstress that informed her “bone-simple, uncluttered, casual elegance”—and fueled her ambition to avoid the fate of the self-supporting seamstress. The couturière embraced the democratization of high fashion. She scrutinized immigrants trying on $4 dresses in the communal fitting room—including Chanel knockoffs—and, ahead of her time, embraced copies as “spontaneous publicity.” Room of a Poor Seamstress from Harper's, 1880.
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Stern
Black dress began as the garb of clergymen and aristocrats. Pious 17th-century Dutch burghers passed it on to the masses. Pictured in this 1677 wedding portrait is Mrs. Isaac Massa. Her sacerdotal black, the traditional color of mourning, self-abnegation and temperance, is relieved by a contrasting millstone ruff of white linen. “Marriage Portrait of Isaac Massa and Beatrix van der Laen” by Franz Hals c.1622.
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Practical
In the 1880s, American manufacturers invented the first ready-to-wear clothes for women, and working women adopted a precursor to the LBD: the mass-produced tailor-made suit. Consisting of a dark skirt, blazer and shirtwaist (or blouse), the design was derived from aristocratic riding habits and answered the urban woman’s need for greater mobility. Women could ascend streetcars just as their more fortunate sisters had mounted steeds, pursuing wages instead of foxhounds. “A Tailor-Made Girl” from Century magazine, 1887.
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Rebellious
But pragmatic black wasn’t just for working women. Women rebels wore it too; Lucile Franque, the late 18th-century painter pictured here, hung out in Paris with the art-boy gang who called themselves the Barbus, bearded ones. Although the mode was for frou-frou pastels, Barbus gals wore ensembles of black crepe, veils, and wreaths of flowers. Detail of Messageot-Charve Family c.1798 by Lucil Franque. From George Levitine, The Dawn of Bohemianism: The Barbu Rebellion and Primitivism in Neoclassical France.
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Boho
“Bohemian” black entered pop culture when it was adopted by the post-war Left Bank existentialists. Although certain New York Bohemians favored black cloaks, notably Djuna Barnes, the she-Beats are credited as the originators of the modern look. LBD poster girl Audrey Hepburn would popularize the ersatz existential look in Funny Face, pictured here. After the film’s release, many Beat girls defected to antique clothes, and today both the all-black look and vintage pastiche are badges of the “boho” lifestyle. Film still from Funny Face.
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Beat
In her study Seeing Through Clothes, historian Anne Hollander makes a crucial distinction about Beatnik black. The standard all-black Beat look was actually a separates-based style gleaned from the professional garb of seamen, acrobats, and dancers: turtlenecks, skirts and tights. This 1927 photograph of Martha Graham would permit the assumption that Beat gals probably approved of and wore one-piece black dresses, too. Modern dancer-choreographer Martha Graham. Photograph by Soichi Sunami, 1927.
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Extravagant
After World War II, the LBD was temporarily dethroned by Dior’s BBD––big black dress. The 1947 Diorama afternoon dress, similar to the model pictured here, required 29.20 yards of black crêpe de Chine and weighed just under seven pounds. “Abundance was still too much of a novelty for people to reinvent a snobbism of poverty!” Dior wrote in defense of his nostalgic Victorian mode. Corset and crinolines were a must. Christian Dior Fashion Show, featuring a petal-shaped hat in transparent black with plain black dress, 1947.
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Safe
While American manufacturers churned out cheap LBD (and BBD) Paris knockoffs for the masses, starting in the 1930s Claire McCardell invented a sporty, unpretentious American look in casual, easy-care fabrics like cotton. How did regular women regard their LBDs? One oral history of the 1950s recorded this sentiment: “If there were ten women at a party, nine would be in black ... We felt safe with black. It symbolized sexiness and adulthood.” Sketch of Claire McCardells black rayon dress (c.1950) by Katherine Ramos.
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Angry
In 1974, inside a vintage rockabilly shop at 430 King’s Road, Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm Maclaren hashed out the look and soundtrack of British punk. Anti-hippie, the duo began crafting T-shirts with political slogans. Now slashed and safety-pinned, the LBD bore the scars of physical confrontation: brawls, riotous dancing, rough sex. No longer self-abnegating or demure, punked-out the LBD became a banner of conspicuous outrage. Untitled photograph of clerks Jordan and Paul Getty, 1974. From Vivienne Westwood: Fashion, Perversity and the Sixties Laid Bare.
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'Bag lady'-like
The LBD was subjected to another phase of desecration, this time from the runway. In 1981, designer Rei Kawakubo presented unfinished, tattered, deconstructed, mostly black clothing to very confused crowds in Paris. One critic called the look “Hiroshima bag lady.” Nobody knew what to make of the mode, which incorporated the nihilism of punk but none of the kink. Boundaries of frontality and inside-outside collapsed; garments were incomplete, asymmetrical, and loose-fitting. Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons, 1983.
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13 of 13 Recession-friendly
The Paris fashion shows in February 2009 yielded the first batch of clothes designed after the Dow plummeted. Many designers offered improvisations on the LBD and promoted it as recession-friendly look. “I thought with my heart about what women need from fashion—dresses, suits, blouses, coats,” explained Albert Elbaz after unveiling of his LBD-centric collection for Lanvin. “Life isn't just parties and lunches.” Lanvin F2009 runway look #1.
