For a 40% discount for the College Art Association 2022 Convention, use discount code CAA22 at checkout. Valid through April 8, 2022.
Little Black Dress: A Fashion Evolution provides a deep dive into the history of an iconic staple of women’s fashion.
The History of the Little Black Dress, Style
During the nineteenth century, black clothing was usually worn to signify a special status, i.e. mourning, religious piety, extreme poverty or a position of economic and social authority. Because many professional men adopted black suit coats after 1850, black clothing was also associated with masculinity. Though women certainly wore all-black on some occasions, these ensembles were usually worn for specific activities, such as mourning or equestrian pursuits. Black slowly began to enter the realm of fashionable dress in the late nineteenth century when it was adopted by a few daringly audacious women for day and/or evening dress. The infamous black dress worn by Virginie Gautreau in John Singer Sargent's 1884 painting Madame X, though shockingly revealing for the 1880s, is a prescient vision of what would become one of the twentieth century's most iconic garments, the little black dress. Black dresses slowly gained ground through the early years of the twentieth century, earning the nickname "little" as the elaborate embellishment of late nineteenth century dress gradually dropped away. A November 23, 1906 society feature in the New York Times titled Society Women Wear Black indicates that all-black dress was fashionable but was still considered novel enough to inspire comment. During World War I, mourning dress was so widespread that black dresses were, almost necessarily, created in tune with the latest fashions. For the many women who worked outside the home during World War I, black garments were also a practical choice for everyday dress. Black also entered the fashionable lexicon via the work of Chanel, who presented a collection consisting primarily of black dresses in 1919. Others, including Poiret, Lanvin and Fortuny were also experimenting with the potential of black during this same period. By the late 1920s, the little black dress had become a wardrobe essential. The images below feature a selection of little black dresses from the FIDM Museum collection. When looking at these images as a group, an impressive continuity is apparent. Despite slight differences in silhouette the primary characteristics of a little black dress, simplicity and an understated elegance, remain the same from decade to decade. Evening dress Silk taffeta 1927-29 Transfer from the Museum at FIT 2004.291.21
The Little Black Dress - FIDM Museum
Articles published in partnership with Object Lessons
Object Lessons - The Atlantic
It’s hard to argue with the fact that Coco Chanel was a fashion genius. She single-handedly changed how women dress in the modern Western world. We went from wearing nearly 20…
The Versatility of Coco Chanel's Original Little Black Dress - PetiteOver40
Top images of little black dress sketch by website compilation. There are also images related to sketch little black dress drawing, pinterest
Discover more than 74 little black dress sketch
White Trash: The 400-year Untold History of Class in America [Book]
Jubilating; or, How the Atlantic Working Class Used the Biblical Jubilee Against Capitalism, With Some Success. An article by Peter Linebaugh of Midnight Notes, 1990.
Jubilating - Peter Linebaugh
A Lot of What Is Known about Pirates Is Not True, and a Lot of What Is True
Black studies is a rapidly advancing discipline and it has grown by leaps and bounds over the past 50-plus years. The National Council of Black Studies is continuing to stoke that fire and fan the flames to incite greater relationships between academic excellence and social responsibility. To further facilitate this relationship NCBS is launching its annual report. The inaugural annual report is scheduled for Spring 2022. This timely report aims to include short essays (between 1000 and 3000 words or between 4 and 6 double spaced pages) on new, emerging, and ongoing current issues and innovations of importance to Africana communities in the United States and throughout the global African world. Our mission is to create a space for our discipline to offer historical context, future projections, solutions, and culturally aligned analyses of current needs, concerns, innovations, and ideas of people of African ancestry anywhere in the world.
2022 NCBS Annual Report by National Council for Black Studies - Issuu
Kevin Cosby: Reparations column was white supremacist propaganda
A few weeks ago, I was able to attend a symposium at my Alma Mater (USF) that discussed the brilliance of the late great Harold Cruse. Cruse’s two legendary books “The Crisis of the Negro…
The Crisis of The Current Negro Intellectual, by Amir A
The Little Black Dress - Must Have!
News Harvard Stone Program in Wealth Distribution, Inequality, and Social Policy