The “little black dress,” a wardrobe staple, was popularized in the 1920s by French designer Coco Chanel.
Chanel’s influential version appeared in American Vogue in 1926. The dress was a short, simple black design with clean lines, and Vogue compared its accessible, practical character to the Ford automobile. At a time when black was strongly associated with mourning or domestic service, Chanel helped recast it as modern, elegant, and fashionable.
The little black dress was designed to be versatile: its simple shape could work for daytime with a jacket or for evening with jewelry and formal accessories. Its affordability and ease of styling also helped it appeal beyond wealthy clients, especially during the economic pressures of the 1930s.
A common mix-up is crediting Audrey Hepburn’s famous black dress in Breakfast at Tiffany’s to Chanel. That particular dress was designed by Hubert de Givenchy, although it belongs to the same broader little-black-dress tradition.