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A Short History of the Little Black Dress

A Short History of the Little Black Dress

By Maura Fritz

Updated November 08, 2017

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Its silhouette has changed over the years, but the LBD remains supremely chic.

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The Birth of the LBD

Perhaps more than any other piece of clothing, the little black dress is, women have been told, the essential, the one that will take you practically anywhere. And perhaps more than any other designer, Coco Chanel was the one who made it ubiquitous. She did not invent the concept, of course, but according to Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life (by Justine Picardine, $40, amazon.com), “the little black dress was not formally identified as the shape of the future until 1926, when American Vogue published a drawing of a Chanel design.… It was an apparently simple yet elegant sheath, in black crêpe de Chine, with long, narrow sleeves, worn with a string of white pearls; and Vogue proved to be correct in the prediction that it would become a uniform.…” Contrast that description with these more elaborate dresses from 1925.

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1927

Note the narrowed silhouette and shorter hemline of this layered creation with a semi-sheer top.

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1928

Sasha, Getty1

Actress Joan Bennett in a more stereotypical flapper ensemble, a tiered Charleston-style dress and cloche hat.

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1928

Getty1

An evening dress from that same year: handkerchief-hemmed, sleek, and modern.

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1930

General Photographic Agency, Getty Images

Renowned entertainer Josephine Baker wears a shorter skirt adorned with peacock feathers.

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1935

Luigi Diaz, Getty Images

The ’30s would bring a return to softer, feminine cuts. Full, flowing hems once again fell below the calf. That asymmetrical neckline still looks modern.

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1936

Hulton Archive, Getty Images

This glamorous look may have been influenced by Italian designer Elsa Schiaparelli, who loved embellishment as much as she did strong shoulders.

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1939

Fox Photos, Getty Images

A meticulously tailored LBD as worn by the Duchess of Windsor, as famous for her sense of style as she was infamous for her love life.

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1943

Popperfoto, Getty Images

Minimalism and practicality prevailed during the war years; silhouettes became simple, boxy, and functional, with a military feel to their squared shoulders.

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1948

Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

Postwar, the fashion world took a new turn with Christian Dior’s legendary New Look: wasp waist, lavishly full skirt, as with this knocked-off version.

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1949

Nina Leen, Time & Life Pictures, Getty Images

Two years after he introduced the New Look, Dior narrowed his skirts—like his velvet-and-satin cocktail dress here—hinting at the lean sheaths to come.

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1951

Bill Brandt, Getty One

The sleek sheath—this one by Dior again—would be one of the shapes that dominated the ’50s.

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1951

Gordon Parks, Getty IMages

A plunging neckline and a pencil-slim skirt combine for a dramatic cocktail dress.

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1955

Kurt Hutton, Getty Images

A graceful mid-decade dress harks back to the look that revolutionized fashion almost a decade before.

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1956

Bob Haswell, Getty Images

Marilyn Monroe—hand in hand with new husband Arthur Miller—in a wool-crepe Galanos cocktail dress with a bare chiffon midriff.

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1957

Loomis Dean, Getty Images

A gorgeous pouf of a dress from Paris.

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1959

Archive Photos, Getty Images

Mademoiselle Chanel, the celebrated couturier herself, puts the finishing touches on a late-’50s design.

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1961

Keystone Features, Getty Images

Audrey Hepburn in what might be filmdom’s most famous LBD, designed by Hubert de Givenchy for Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

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1962

Express Newspapers, Getty Images

Chanel’s influence is seen in the multiple ropes of pearls piled atop a little black dress (the bouffant perhaps inspired by then–first lady Jacqueline Kennedy).

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1965

Hulton Archive, Getty Images

Though the photograph is from the mid-’60s, Sophia Loren would be just as stylish wearing this outfit today: leopard-print hat, accessorizing brooch, timeless black dress.

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1965

Duffy, Getty Images

The 1960s also ushered in the era of the mini, like this beaded chiffon number. Eventually hems soared so high they had no place to go but down.

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1970

Gene Lester, Getty Images

Liza Minnelli attends the Academy Awards with her father wearing a simple, sexy wrap style that presages the slinky disco dresses in the offing.

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1970

Ron Galella, Getty Images

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis chooses a more elaborate black dress for dinner at the fashionable La Côte Basque. Mrs. Onassis would be seen in the dress on a number of occasions; she didn’t believe in retiring an outfit after being photographed in it once.

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1977

Duffy, Getty Images

Blondie’s Deborah Harry puts some rock spin on the little black dress—extra emphasis on the little.

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1985

Pierre Guillaud, Getty Images

A bit of 1980s excess at the House of Chanel, under the direction of Karl Lagerfeld, who is widely credited with reinvigorating it.

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1988

Ron Galella, Ltd., Getty Images

Almost 30 years after the release of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Iman elegantly updates the look with a sleek gown and an equally sleek updo.

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1994

Gerrard Julien, Getty Images

Naomi Campbell on the catwalk for Chanel, modeling Lagerfeld’s brief take on the LBD. Mademoiselle herself resisted raising hemlines; in fact, she seemed to disapprove of miniskirts.

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1994

Gareth Davies, Getty Images

Lagerfeld wasn’t the only one pushing limits. Here, Elizabeth Hurley wears—sort of—Gianni Versace’s notorious version of the fashion standard.

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1994

Princess Diana Archive, Getty Images

Princess Diana raised eyebrows with this stunning LBD—her so-called revenge dress—but not for the first time. The low-cut black gown she’d worn in her public debut as Prince Charles’ fiancée verged on the scandalous for its serious décolletage.

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1998

New York Daily News Archive, Getty Images

With her chic sensibility, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy epitomizes spare elegance.

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1999

Jim Smeal, Getty Images

Calista Flockhart’s dress is a step back to another time, recalling the luxurious skirts and lowered hems of the New Look.

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A Short History of the Little Black Dress

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The Birth of the LBD

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1927

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1928

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1928

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1930

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1935

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1936

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1939

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1943

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1948

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1949

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1951

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1951

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1955

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1956

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1957

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1959

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1961

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1962

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1965

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1965

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1970

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1970

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1977

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1985

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1988