What Is a Little Black Dress (LBD)?

Where does the little black dress come from?

The little black dress first caught fashionable attention in the 1920s, after black had spent decades moving from a colour of mourning and service into fashionable dress. The house of Chanel became closely linked with black in October 1926.

Black before Chanel

In the 19th century, black clothing usually signalled a special status such as mourning, religious piety or extreme poverty, according to the FIDM Museum. The V&A adds that black had long been associated with service, shop assistants and mourning dress. Black slowly entered fashionable dress in the late 19th century. The FIDM Museum points to the black gown in John Singer Sargent’s 1884 painting Madame X as a forerunner, and to a New York Times society feature of 23 November 1906, “Society Women Wear Black”, which shows that all-black dress was fashionable but still novel enough to draw comment.

During the First World War, mourning dress was so widespread that black dresses were made in the latest fashions. For the many women working outside the home, black was also a practical choice.

Chanel and the 1926 Vogue “Ford”

Chanel presented a collection made up mainly of black dresses in 1919. The FIDM Museum notes that Poiret, Lanvin and Fortuny were experimenting with black in the same period. In October 1926, American Vogue predicted that a black Chanel day dress in crêpe de chine would be “the frock that all the world will wear”, as the V&A records. The magazine likened the dress to the Ford car. The Met’s essay on Chanel reads the comparison as a reference to its almost universal popularity as a fashion basic; the Met’s collection notes put it down to the dress’s transformative qualities.

National Museums Scotland describes that 1926 dress as loose, comfortable and relatively unadorned. Chanel also worked widely in jersey, a cloth more commonly used for men’s underwear until she adopted it, according to the Met.

Did Chanel invent it?

Sources differ. The Met’s collection notes say Coco Chanel created the little black dress in 1926, and the V&A calls it Chanel’s little black dress. The FIDM Museum tells a longer story: fashionable black gowns existed decades earlier, and Chanel’s 1919 black collection came while Poiret, Lanvin and Fortuny were also experimenting with black. National Museums Scotland says only that Chanel introduced a famously simple black day dress in 1926. By the late 1920s, the FIDM Museum says, the little black dress had become a standard part of the fashionable wardrobe.

After the 1920s

During the Second World War the little black dress served both as mourning wear and as a formal afternoon dress, according to National Museums Scotland. In 1954 Christian Dior’s The Little Dictionary of Fashion declared black appropriate “at any time, any age, and for almost any occasion”. Dior defined the perfect cocktail dress as an elaborate afternoon dress in black taffeta, satin, chiffon or wool.

What makes a dress a little black dress?

A dress counts as a little black dress when it is black and simple: the colour is fixed, while the cut, length and cloth are not. The FIDM Museum says the nickname “little” came as the heavy decoration of late-19th-century dress fell away, and that simplicity and understated elegance stay constant from decade to decade even as the silhouette shifts.

• Colour: black, sometimes with black-on-black decoration. The V&A notes Chanel’s use of black sequins, jet beads and black lace.
• Restraint: little surface decoration, so the eye goes to what National Museums Scotland calls the core elements of design: texture, tone and silhouette.
• Range: it can be dressed up or down and move from day to evening, as the V&A puts it.
• No fixed cut: a sheath dress, a shift dress or a wrap dress can all be little black dresses if they are black and plain.

Little black dress vs cocktail dress

What are the main types of little black dress?

Little black dresses are best sorted by the occasion and cloth they were made for, from plain day dresses to sheer evening versions. Museum pieces show the range.

How do you tell a well-made little black dress?

A well-made little black dress hangs straight, lies smoothly on the body and is as neat inside as out. The checks below follow the University of Idaho Extension’s Guide to Standards of Quality in Clothing Construction (1978) and US labelling rules.

Fit

• Stand in front of a mirror and look for wrinkles. Wrinkles that pull and draw mean too little ease; wrinkles that lie in folds mean too much.
• Check the hem from the side. It should be parallel to the floor.
• Look at the grain. The lengthwise yarns should hang perpendicular to the floor, and the left and right halves should match.

Cloth and label

• Read the fibre label. In the US it must list fibres by generic name and percentage by weight, in order of predominance; fibres under 5% must be listed as “other fiber” unless they have a definite function, but wool is always named with its percentage. So “crêpe” or “satin” on a hangtag tells you the weave or finish, while the label tells you whether it is silk, wool or polyester.
• On napped cloth such as velvet, all pieces should run in one direction.
• Hold the dress up to the light. The cloth should keep its original appearance, with no shine, flattened nap or iron marks from overpressing.

Inside

• Turn the dress inside out. Seam allowances should be even in width, flat and free from puckering.
• Darts should taper smoothly to a point with no pucker or bubble at the tip.
• A lining should fit smoothly inside the dress. A free-hanging lining should be attached to the dress at the hemline with French tacks (short thread chains).
• Run the zip. It should slide easily without catching, and the zip tape should not show unless that is part of the design.
• Hand-stitched hems should be evenly spaced, secure and invisible from the outside.

Red flags

• Puckered seams or darts.
• A neckline or armhole facing that pulls, or hand stitches visible from the outside.
• Shiny patches from pressing.
• A fibre label with no percentages, which US law requires for most textile garments.

How do you wear a little black dress?

Wear a little black dress as a plain base and let the cloth and accessories set the occasion. The Met describes the dress as a minimalist canvas for day, cocktail and evening accessories such as hats, gloves and handbags, and above all costume jewellery.

• For day: choose a matte cloth such as crêpe or wool, with flat shoes and a jacket or cardigan.
• For early evening: move to satin, taffeta or lace, and add jewellery and a small bag.
• For evening: sheer or embellished black, kept to one focal point, so the outline stays clear.

Because the colour carries no pattern, the outline does the work. National Museums Scotland notes that the dress’s starkness focuses the eye on texture, tone and silhouette, so choose the cut for your body first and the decoration second.