Deirdre McQuillan on 80 years of the little black dress
"No more bosom. No more stomach. No more rump. As for the skirt, we are raising it to the knee. Feminine fashion will be baptised: lop off everything." Such was the male response to Vogue's prediction in l926 that Chanel's little black sheath of crepe de chine, with its tight fitting sleeves, would become a sort of uniform for chic women everywhere. As fashion forecasts go, it was remarkably farsighted.
Contrary to popular opinion, however, Coco Chanel did not invent the little black dress - there were many around at the time - but she made black fashionable. It was a colour whose potency she understood instinctively, and she wore it throughout her life. Her attitude, that of a modern, independent woman, defined her style as much as her trend-setting clothes. Copying didn't bother her unduly.
"Without imitation, there is no success," shrugged the woman who even at table couldn't stop her fingers pleating the napkins, as Cecil Beaton once noted.
The LBD remains one of fashion's most sought-after garments. It is accessible to most and a safe night-time staple with the power to make a woman look slimmer, sexier or more interesting. It is also the perfect background for forceful accessories such as stilettos or steel beads. It can have movie-star quality, Parisian chic or playful frivolity, but endures in whatever guise.
When Sex and the City was launched in 1999, the billboards showed the four protagonists in little black dresses. H & M's latest campaign depicts two models in black sweater dresses - all plunging necklines, high heels and high voltage vitality. Chanel's current numbers are sweet, sexy and romantic.
One company that has made the Little Black Dress its raison d'etre is Didier Ludot in Paris. This is a famous vintage clothing store in the Palais Royale that specialises in 20th-century haute couture, from the 1920s to 1980s. For the past seven years, however, it has offered its own collection of 13 little black dresses each season, along with vintage couture Balenciagas, Givenchys, Diors and Chanels. "The little black dress is a symbol of Parisian chic," Ludot says. "It represents ease and elegance."
The spring 2007 collection was shown at Paris Sur Mode and it was a great surprise to discover that the company now has an Irish stockist, Kate Gleeson of Diffusion in Clontarf. Her boutique windows currently display six little black Didier Ludot dresses, from high-necked numbers in silk, organza and lace to a baby-doll style in satin with spaghetti straps. "They capture what a lot of other labels are trying to do," Gleeson says. "I have been looking for the perfect little black dresses for years, and these hit the note perfectly." At more than €l,500 apiece, however, the prices are less democratic than the styles, but the dresses are of couture quality.
At Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld continues to subvert, rearrange and endlessly reinvent the LBD, season after season, proving that 80 years later, the old black magic of the Petit Robe Noir still retains its allure and enchantment. The frock still rocks.