The little black dress (LBD) is unquestionable in its elegance and is often a woman’s “right-hand man” in the closet. There has never been a piece of fashion that has transcended the wear of time like the LBD. Every icon has been seen wearing one: Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Madonna, Tina Turner, Princess Diana, and Michelle Obama (Walker). Fashion often serves as a magnifying glass into society, especially a woman’s place in society and class. The little black dress is a garment that has transcended time, class divides, and economic struggle. It symbolizes a world of unlimited femininity and erotism (by which I don’t mean the sexualized but the divinely feminine) while still encapsulating the label of “business casual.”
From mourning the death of your husband, to a maid’s uniform, to the “Model T”-like explosion of Coco Chanel’s design, the LBD is a cultural artifact of indestructible force.
The color black is a defining feature of the LB D and the fashion industry, but at one point it was only acceptable to wear the color black when mourning. Mourning clothes
and customs signify cultural practices, symbols of power and wealth, and etiquette. During the 19th century, black dresses were somber and modest. Women dealt with restrictive rules on how to dress during mourning including heavy, concealing black clothing, veils, and bonnets. Women were expected to wear black clothing for up to four years after their husbands died and changing their wardrobe prematurely was a sign of disrespect (Bedikian). The black dresses shielded the woman. It said, “I am mourning my husband, for now, suitors, please don’t talk to me.” Mourning wear disconnected a woman from society and served as an explanation for depressive behavior. Mourning clothes were also a sign of social and financial capital since they were so extravagant. Many mourning dresses and accessories were ornate. They had the “quiet glamor” of the 1860s (Bedikian).
As the art of mourning died, expressions of grief became more private. Elaborate mourning traditions fell out of style during World War Two. Men were dying so often that mourning clothes became impractical and when women entered the workforce they had to change out of necessity. As Shannon Meyer details in her review of the Saint Louis history museum exposition The Little Black Dress: From Mourning to Night, “the lines between mourning and fashion were blurred” (142). Black became a normal color for women to wear in the workplace because it was harder to see dirt and it wore down slower (Bedikian). In a split second, black dresses were revolutionized to be a staple of working-class women and second-wave feminism.
In the late 17th century, British, American, and French aristocrats required their
maids to wear a simple black dress as a uniform. This ensured that the maid was never confused with the lady of the house (awkward!). As Atlantic writer, Puhak, details in her article The Underclassmen Origins of the Little Black Dress “the little black dress marked and mediated social boundaries” and “The most important acolytes of the little black dress were not designers nor aristocrats, but masses of working-class women.” Shop girls were also forced to wear little black dresses after they began to outshine the customers. The little black dress-the delineator of class-began transcending class.
At the turn of the century, Coco Chanel coined the LBD as her own. The dress would “become sort of a uniform for all women of taste,” according to Vogue’s editors (Puhak). The elite ate it up. As the nature of fashion is cyclical, the LBD serves as a perfect example of the rich appropriating from the poor (much like blue jeans). It became a luxury to look like a poor woman. Chanel’s LBD was considered the Model T of fashion because everyone wanted one and it was easy to reproduce. It was “a collaboration between cutting-edge technology and age-old class politics” (Puhak). This shift marked a period of unconventionality and class disruption.
In an almost incomprehensible Marxist rant, Richard Martin, detailed how the introduction of the LBD into the luxury sphere shocked and outraged the bourgeoisie. Versace’s Elizebeth Hurley safety pin dress served to enrage those who believed in the little black dress. “This isn’t luxury! He’s making fun of us!” As Martin puts it in 1994, “he [Versace] seeks to evade and offend the middle class in a conventional épater la bourgeoisie strategy known to every adolescent and every avant-garde artist in service of a novel configuration of fashion”(96). More profoundly, Martin also says that fashion is “an art of living, in the public realm unsheltered by any privilege to be an isolated discourse, unable to be less than aesthetics and less than cultural postulation” (100). Simply put, fashion is the art of living, moving, and existing in society. It is in the aesthetics of class, race, and gender that social groups converse.
As Stoyan Asenov points out in her essay Notes on Femininity, The LBD serves as a “social persona” creating buzz and taking on a character of its own (163). There is an elegance of simplicity that creates a “caring protection of femininity” (Asenov). Oftentimes, when wearing black, the body is engulfed and lineless, especially in pictures. The LBD also transfigures this idea by adding a feminine shape and body to the color black. A woman in a black dress takes control of herself, she is free. The Little Black Dress helps one connect to their body, how it moves, and where they want it to go. It offers both the excitement of a trend and the depth of a tradition (167). As Asenov put it, “The little black dress represents a femininity which is both realized and realizing; that is why when young girls want to look grown up they often reach for the little black dress as if trying to make up for all the days they have not yet lived” (177).
Urban dictionary defines the LBD as “just a little too short. Just a little too tight. One that hugs curves you never knew you had. One that looks as if it was made for your body and your body only. One that makes you feel sexy the second you put it on.” Clothes can transform us and change our moods. Everyone should have something in their closet that makes them feel good about themselves, even on their worst days. The LBD is a timeless piece that will look good on everyone. Don’t wait, people, go and get your LBD!
References
Asenov, Stoyan. “NOTES ON FEMININITY, OR THE BIG STORY OF A LITTLE DRESS.” Horizon. Fenomenologičeskie Issledovanija, vol. 6, no. 1, 2017, pp. 161–80, https://doi.org/10.21638/2226-5260-2017-6-1-161-180.
Bedikian, Sonia A. “The Death of Mourning: From Victorian Crepe to the Little Black Dress.” Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, vol. 57, no. 1, 2008, pp. 35–52, https://doi.org/10.2190/OM.57.1.c.
“Little Black Dress.” Urban Dictionary, https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Little+Black+Dress.
Martin, Richard. “Gianni Versace’s Anti-Bourgeois Little Black Dress (1994).” Fashion Theory, vol. 2, no. 1, 1998, pp. 95–100.
Meyer, Shannon. “Little Black Dress: From Mourning to Night: Missouri History Museum, Saint LouisApril 2, 2016–September 5, 2016Catalogue Little Black Dress: From Mourning to Night
Shannon MeyerSaint Louis: Missouri History Museum Press, 2016.160 Pp.; 75 Color platesPaper $35.00ISBN 9781883982843.” West 86th, vol. 24, no. 1, 2017, pp. 140–44, https://doi.org/10.1086/693808.
Puhak, Shelley. “The Underclass Origins of the Little Black Dress.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 17 Jan. 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/10/the-underclass-origins-of-the-little-black-dress/542910/.
Walker, Anna. “The Evolution of: The Little Black Dress.” Reader's Digest, https://www.readersdigest.co.uk/lifestyle/fashion-beauty/the-evolution-of-the-little-black-dress.
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