"Scheherezade is easy; a little black dress is difficult."

History of The Little Black Dress

Coco Chanel may have designed the first Little Black Dress, but women had been wearing black garments for decades before the French fashionista ever make her mark. Black dresses were incredibly prominent during the Victorian Era and were worn with a certain amount of frequency. Widowed women were expected to wear black for years after their husbands had passed away as a sign of mourning for their beloved. When Queen Victoria’s husband Albert died in 1861, she reportedly wore black dresses for the next forty years as a visible display of her sadness. Black dresses were also typically worn by the working class during the 19th century. Maids, housekeepers, and cleaning women frequently had black dresses as uniforms because the dark color would hide dirt and other unsightly stains. While there was nothing “little” about the black dresses worn during this era, it is safe to say that historically the black dress was associated with mourning, poverty, and other generally negative connotations.