![]() Coco Chanel was a style icon and trendsetter in the 20th century. In 1926 she invented the little black dress. A convenient evening dress for women, which could be easily dressed up with certain accessories for more fancy occasions. What started as a revolution in the mid-twenties of the prior century was going to become a Classic within the next eight decades. Although it has its up’s and down’s the little black dress still remains an essential piece in designer-collections nowadays. 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.
The little black dress continued to be popular through the Great Depression, predominantly through its economy and elegance, albeit with the line lengthened somewhat. Hollywood's influence on fashion in North America helped the little black dress' popularity, but for more practical reasons: asTechnicolor films became more common, filmmakers relied on little black dresses because other colors looked distorted on screen and botched the coloring process. During World War II, the style continued in part due to widespread rationing of textiles and in part as a common uniform (accessorized for businesswear) for civilian women entering the workforce. Woman wearing a little black dress in 2010. The rise of Dior's "New Look" in the post-war era and the sexual conservatism of the 1950s returned the little black dress to its roots as a uniform and a symbol of the dangerous woman. Hollywood femme fatales and fallen women characters were portrayed often in black halter-style dresses in contrast to the more conservative dresses of housewives or more wholesome Hollywood stars. Synthetic fibres made popular in the 1940s and 1950s broadened the availability and affordability of many designs. The generation gap of the 1960s created a dichotomy in the design of the little black dress. The younger "mod" generation preferred, in general, a miniskirt on their versions of the dress and designers catering to the youth culture continued to push the envelope - shortening the skirt even more, creating cutouts or slits in the skirt or bodice of the dress, using sheer fabrics such as netting or tulle. Many other women in the 1960s aspired to simple black sheath dresses similar to that designed by Hubert de Givenchy and worn by actress Audrey Hepburn in the film Breakfast at Tiffany's. The popularity of casual fabrics, especially knits, for dress and business wear during the 1980s brought the little black dress back into vogue. Coupled with the fitness craze, the new designs incorporated details already popular at the time such as broad shoulders or peplums: later in the decade and into the 1990s, simpler designs in a variety of lengths and fullness were popular. The grunge culture of the 1990s saw the combination of the little black dress with both sandals and combat boots, though the dress itself remained simple in cut and fabric. The new glamour of the late 1990s led to new variations of the dress but, like the 1950s and the 1970s, color re-emerged as a factor in fashion and formal wear and repeatedly shows an aversion to black. The resurgence of body conscious clothing, muted color schemes, and the of predominant black, along with the retrospective trends of the 1980s in the late 2000s paved way to the return of interest to the dress. |