What makes the little black dress so timeless?

Is it hedonistically indulging to materialistically explore life within all the various colours of the
technicolour spectrum? To delight in the shirted nautical blues of Alexander Wangs summer spring
collection, to covet Chanels spring summer violet tweeds, to relish Alturzarras camel yellows?
Generally, to enjoy and revel the splendour and eclecticism that is colour? Of course not: to suggest
so is draconian and illogical: liberalism has not only percolated the political, but also raiment,
whereby we have the freedom in western society to embellish and drape ourselves with whatever
cornucopia of colours we see fit, depending on our style, preferences, and our mood (although
colour psychology holds dubious basing, it has been thought that colour itself can be linked to mood,
whereby yellow is associated with happiness, red with anger, and blue with pathos). Colour itself
acquires a totipotent identity. Not only is it a corroboration for the underestimated existence of
choice due to our freedoms, but it is a divider of peoples, a validation of the vivacity and
aestheticism of life, an agent of political and religious symbolism and fundamentally, individual
expression. And that is why colour procures power. According to Satyendra Singh from the
University of Winnipeg, colour can be used to increase or decrease appetite, enhance mood and
calm down customers.
However, there is colour, and then there is black. Albeit black is a colour that is commonly
associated with heinousness, and witchcraft, but Gianni Versace opined that "black is the
quintessence of simplicity and elegance. Anterior to the spectrum, and thus blessed with an innate
sense of self awareness, it is opulent in sombreness, seductiveness, maturity, taste, and is liked by
both the old and young. It can be reserved for evening wear, and when dressed with jeans, forms
the perfect daytime outfit. And, furthermore, when in confluence with one of fashions most
rudimentary elements, the dress, it produces a statement more audacious than any of the other
statements combined. And that is the little black dress. Christian Dior postulated that one is never
over or underdressed with a little black dress. Notably, the little black dresss origin can be traced
to 1926, as designed by Coco Chanel, whereby she published a picture of a simplistic black dress for
American Vogue. Additionally, the little black dress gained increasing notoriety as revitalised in
Diors New Look post-war collection, and was infamously worn by Audrey Hepburn, designed by
Hubert de Givenchy, in Breakfast at Tiffanys in 1961. The little black dress is a symbolism of the
conglomeration of elegance and ready to wear. It is a piece in equilibrium with both the past and the
present. Unlike the billowed skirts of the fifties, the miniskirts of the sixties, and the Lycra revolution
of the eighties, the little black dress has stood the test of time.
The question is, why has the little black dress been able to conquer its colourful contemporaries,
placing it in a peremptory bureaucratic position of salience and reverence within the fashion world?
What makes the little black dress so eternally classic? Firstly, the little black dress encapsulates the
regality of the colour black into a tasteful feminine unit. In the 14
th
century, due to the creation of
high quality, yet expensive dyes which permitted the fabrication of high quality black clothing, black
became the colour worn by merchants, and bankers. The Duke of Milan, and the Count of Savoy,
wore black, as well as the Duke of Burgundy, and the Spanish Hapsburgs. Charles V and Philip II of
Spain were soon to follow, as the 16
th
century officialised black as the colour of royalty, money, and
power. It is this idiosyncratic association of black with the aristocracy that makes the little black
dress so classy and desirable.
Secondly, the little black dress is a piece which is so verily malleable, yet acquires a simplistic
formula, meaning that you can have it in so many different styles, but you can call it a little black
dress. You could have an a line black dress, a dress with a boxed front, a tulip dress, a backless
number, a dress in bodycon, a cocktail dress, a dress with tassels, and in a variety of different fabrics:
velvet, lace, linen, cotton, silk. The little black dress itself does not exist in rigidity: it can be moulded
to fit the preference of its buyer: the rule is that is must be black, and short.
So, if youre going out to that perfect evening soiree, and youre not sure which colour to wear
because there is just so many to choose from, choose the LBD: you wont be disappointed.