BACK to BLACK

On both the RUNWAY and the RED CARPET, the Little Black Dress is having another great big moment.

- ALISON S. COHN

It’s hard to believe that this time a year ago, pink was fashion’s favourite colour. It was widely available in a robust spectrum, from the dusty rose of millennial pink to the saturated fuchsia of Valentino’s Pink PP. Barbiecore was going strong; with the film starring Margot Robbie as the beloved fashion doll with a signature hot-pink hue expected to be a blockbuster the following summer, trend forecasters at the Pantone Color Institute anointed a bright pinkish-purple called Viva Magenta the 2023 Color of the Year. Fast-forward to the Barbie world premiere in July, when Robbie posed for pictures on a pink carpet, in front of a pink Corvette convertible, but wearing a black custom Schiaparelli Haute Couture bustier dress that was fully embroidered with sequins and finished with layers of tulle. The only nod to pink in Robbie’s look was the mousseline scarf she carried in her right hand. This Barbie wears black. And she’s not alone.

The little black dress, or LBD, that most iconic of styles, popularised nearly a century ago by Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, has returned in a big way. The LBD Chanel introduced in 1926 was a simple, sporty black dress made of lightweight crepe de chine, with long sleeves and a hemline that hit just below the knee. Devoid of embroidery and embellishment—Chanel wore hers with multiple strands of pearls— it borrowed from the codes of menswear.

The original LBD also became a blank slate for reinvention that evolved to accommodate the fashionable silhouettes of every decade, from Cristóbal Balenciaga’s abstract sculptural volumes and Christian Dior’s cinched waists and full A-line skirts to Rei Kawakubo’s body-engulfing Comme des Garçons designs and Vivienne Westwood’s draped corset dresses.