page_title: Little black dress
section_title: Famous examples
hierarchical_section_title: Little black dress / Famous examples
caption_attribution_description: English: Here is a colored version of this drawing.Betty Boop character design, figure 1 from U.S. patent application D86224 "Design for a Doll or Similar Article". Svenska: Utseende för Betty Boop, figur 1 från amerikanska patentansökan D86224 avseende "utseende för en docka eller liknande artikel".
context_page_description: The little black dress is a black evening or cocktail dress, cut simply and often quite short. Fashion historians ascribe the origins of the little black dress to the 1920s designs of Coco Chanel and Jean Patou intended to be long-lasting, versatile, affordable, accessible to the widest market possible and in a neutral colour. Its ubiquity is such that it is often simply referred to as the "LBD".
  The little black dress is considered essential to a complete wardrobe by many women and fashion observers, who believe it a "rule of fashion" that every woman should own a simple, elegant black dress that can be dressed up or down depending on the occasion. For example, it can be worn with a jacket and pumps for daytime business wear, or with ornate jewelry and accessories for evening wear or a formal event such as a wedding or ball.
context_section_description: The black Givenchy dress of Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, designed by Hubert de Givenchy, epitomized the standard for wearing little black dresses accessorized with pearls (together called "basic black"), as was frequently seen throughout the early 1960s. The dress set a record in 2006 when it was auctioned for £410,000, six times its original estimate.
  Betty Boop, a cartoon character based in part on the 1920s it girl Helen Kane, was drawn wearing a little black dress in her early films, though with Technicolor later, Betty's dress became red.
  Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, was known to own several little black dresses and said much in praise of the garments. One quote of the Duchess: "When a little black dress is right, there is nothing else to wear in its place."
  Edith Piaf, the French folk icon, performed in a black sheath dress throughout her career: for this habit she was nicknamed "little black sparrow". It was thought that the dress helped audiences focus more on Piaf's singing and less on her appearance.
  Diana, Princess of Wales wore a black Christina Stambolian dress while at Serpentine Gallery’s summer party, hosted by Vanity Fair in June 1994, the night Charles, Prince of Wales admitted he had an adulterous relationship with Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. Diana's dress has been compared to a "little black dress"
  In an incident at London's Covent Garden theatre in 2004, a director fired the then-obese soprano Deborah Voigt from an opera because she could not fit into a "little black cocktail dress", replacing her with the slimmer Anne Schwanewilms.
caption: Betty Boop by Max Fleischer, 1931
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