When Coco Chanel designed her simple, black sheath dress in 1926, Vogue suggested it would become a 'sort of uniform for women of all tastes'. It has. The black dress is a long-lasting, versatile and affordable piece suited to all women, as intended by Chanel. Vogue called it “Chanel’s Ford.” Like the Model T, the little black dress was simple and accessible for women of all social classes. The beauty of the dress is that it can be used in different situations and can be changed depending on the situation by the addition of accessories. The style has been constantly re-invented throughout the decades, and formed iconic fashion imagery from Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s to Princess Diana, Lollabrigada in La Dolce Vita to Elizabeth Hurley in ‘that dress’.

'Generations of women have been drawn to the little black dress.  Indeed the word has entered our cultural lexicon.  Say it and everyone knows what you are referring to: a dress that’s simple enough to appear effortless yet elegant enough to mark the wearer as a woman of taste….delicious ambiguity is what makes the LBD so attractive.  By turns seductive or demure, bold or self-effacing, chic or gamine, its one of the big guns in any sartorial armoury….Black suggests a uniform chicness that transcends any mere trends'. Nancy MacDonnell Smith, author of The Classic Ten