The Birth of the Little Black Dress

On October 1st, 1926, American Vogue published a drawing that depicted one of Chanel’s styles, accompanied by the comment: “the Chanel ‘Ford’ – the frock that all the world will wear”¹, and the “little black dress” was launched.² From black dresses to restrained ornamentation, Chanel was neither the first nor the only one to make them in the 20s. As early as 1923, the simplicity of the black dress from the House of Premet was depicted in French Vogue. Chanel herself made several other black dresses before and after 1926. But it was this style, taken up by the American press, that left its mark in time and made black be “in” for the entire 20th century.

Of course, this new innovation wasn’t acclaimed by everyone. Its detractors decried its allure as being that of “malnourished telegraphists, without a chest, and without a rump”. Poiret, who Chanel was constantly in competition with, described Chanel’s designs as “a poorness of luxury”. To which Coco dryly retorted: “Better to choose to be stripped down by oneself than by another.”³ This dress is still a crowd pleaser, but why? Its great simplicity and absolute chic as well as its ease of wearability are all attractive. Such a little black dress is most practical. It can be worn at any time of the day, for any occasion, and guarantees constant elegance. “No woman is every too much –or not enough– dressed in a little black dress”, Karl Lagerfeld once said.⁴

It’s so wearable, such a standard, that the comment in Vogue designated it as a “Ford dress”. It’s a reproducible dress par excellence that was easily accessible to a great number of people, just like Ford’s automobile. Not every woman started wearing Chanel overnight; far from it. Its price remained prohibitive for most women, but numerous imitations saw the light of day, especially since Chanel did nothing to discourage copying. On the contrary, she rather hoped that her designs would be reinterpreted in the street, that the greatest number of people possible would wear them. Only then, in her opinion, would her style ever truly take flight. Contrary to other couturiers, she didn’t fear that these third-party reproductions would turn away loyal clientele, for she was convinced that an article issued from her own workshops was distinguishable by the quality of its finishings.⁵ And that is how the little black dress became the uniform of the elegant.