Dressed in Black

This book celebrates that extraordinary and enduring fashion phenomenon, the little black dress.
The black dress is a fashion essential that comes in many guises: smart day wear, chic and understated; flamboyant evening confections of lace and feathers, tulle, velvet, and satin; "street style" outfits that signify rebellion and youth. This book features a variety of innovators from Dior, Balmain, and Balenciaga to Armani, Calvin Klein, and Vivienne Westwood.
Specially commissioned photographs add panache to this book. Fashion enthusiasts will be fascinated by the evolution of the black dress, from the elegance of the early twentieth century through the ground breaking, image-changing ideas that brought us the New Look, the sack, the mini, and avant-garde designs of the present decade. The text explodes a number of myths and provides a chronicle of twentieth-century fashion as seen from a single and compelling perspective.

Valerie Mendes is chief curator of the department of Textiles and Dress at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.