Little Black Dress - Famous Little Black Dresses

Famous Little Black Dresses

Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s dress designed by Hubert de Givenchy epitomized the standard for wearing little black dresses, accessorized with pearls, as was frequently seen throughout the early 1960s. The dress set a record in 2006 when it was auctioned for £410,000 - six times its original estimate. Betty Boop, a cartoon character based in part on the 1920s' "It Girl" Clara Bow, was drawn wearing a little black dress in her early films, though with Technicolor, Betty's dress became red.

Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, was known to own several little black dresses and said much in praise of the garments. One quote of the Duchess: "When a little black dress is right, there is nothing else to wear in its place." Edith Piaf, the French folk icon, performed in a black sheath dress throughout her career: for this habit she was nicknamed “little black sparrow." It was thought that the dress helped audiences focus more on Piaf's singing and less on her appearance.

In the notorious "Covent Garden incident", a director at London's Covent Garden theatre fired the then-obese soprano Deborah Voigt from an opera because she could not fit into a "little black cocktail dress", replacing her with the slimmer Anne Schwanewilms.