Little Black Dress exhibition

A new exhibition titled "Little Black Dress" in Paris explores the cultural relevance and history of one of fashion's most enduring styles. Featuring approximately fifty garments from a canon of modern fashion designers, the exhibition includes

contributions from veteran fashion designers and those of the international Best-Dressed List. The exhibition charts the historic and contemporary significance of a singular sartorial phenomenon.

Curated by Leon Talley, former editor-at-large of US Vogue, the exhibition features haute couture to modern day ready-to-wear pieces.

While Coco Chanel is lauded to have created the first little black dress, the term was coined in 1926 when an American Vogue illustration aligned Chanel’s creation with the any-color-as-long-as-it-is-black model-T Ford car.

The exhibition highlights the strength of individualism, charting the evolution of the little black dress from its native definition of invariable propriety, to new and distinctly contemporary explorations of texture, tone and silhouette.

Dresses on display include a black lace dress worn by Louis Vuitton designer Marc Jacobs to the 2012 Metropolitan Museum gala by the Japanese designer Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons and a sleek dinner dress, worn by the artist Rachel Feinstein, made by Mr. Jacobs. Other styles include a Madam Gres dress from 1977, a 1962 Chanel dress from Baronne Béatrice de Rothschild and a lace Yves Saint Laurent dress donated by the longtime front-row fixture Deeda Blairmodern. Modern day dresses come courtesy of Balenciaga, Givenchy and Stella McCartney.

The exhibition can be viewed at the Mona Bismarck American Center for Art & Culture until September 22nd. A book accompanying the exhibition has been published by Rizzoli.

Image: Little Black Dress exhibition