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The Little Black Dress
Since Chanel introduced the "little black dress" in 1926, it has become the epitome of fashion. Her first LBD was a slash-necked, short silk dress with only diagonal pin-tucks as decoration. American Vogue called it the "Ford." Like Henry Ford's Model-T car, the LBD was an instant hit, widely available, though only in black. Chanel believed fashion should be functional as well as chic. Radically simple, her LBD was designed not to show stains and to fit every woman. It was meant as the fashion ideal: a perfectly simple, yet sexy object.
To modern eyes, Chanel's original LDB may seem rather plain, perhaps too simple, at least compared to the glamorous Givenchy LDB (above) worn by Audrey Hepburn in the 1954 film Sabrina (Paramount Pictures). Until she was seventeen in 1900, Gabrielle Chanel was educated at a convent orphanage run by nuns. It does not take a psychologist to see in Chanel's revolutionary LBD concept a subconscious affinity for the "uniform" (the nun's habit) worn by the women who had raised this penniless provincial girl.
As early as 1915, Coco Chanel envisioned the LDB as the new uniform for women for afternoon and evening wear. Though apparently quite simple, these dresses showed masterful cut and proportion. She used traditional elegant materials like lace, tulle, and soft, weightless silks in a newly tailored way. The LBD made women wearing anything else seem overdressed.
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