Radical Roots of the Little Black Dress

In Double X’s Closet Classics slideshow series, Erika Kawalek, author of the forthcoming Ragpicker, examines the 21st-century women’s wardrobe piece by piece. She begins with the little black dress.

There’s been a lot of discussion lately about what the recession means for fashion. One prediction is that women will practice “investment dressing.” The idea of spending a considerable sum on clothing that is cut from durable fabrics and then sewn into a trend-averse style may sound elitist and silly today, but before ready-to-wear became wear-and-toss, it was the principle on which most women built—and maintained—their wardrobes, the foundation of which was the black dress. A hard-wearing badge of middle-class respectability, revamped and retrimmed over and over again, for centuries the black dress was a woman’s one decent outfit, unfastened each night and hung on a peg.

The haute couturière Coco Chanel, whose life and work is being feted in two biopics this fall, 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.

Click here to launch the Double X guide to the LBD.

Film still from Funny Face, courtesy of Paramount Pictures.