This paper analyzes the little black dress as an artifact of and a vehicle for the performance of a distinctively modern, urbane, independent 20th century femininity by examining its role in the mythologies and iconographies surrounding two of that femininity’s most visible exponents: the historical figure of Gabrielle (Coco) Chanel and the fictional character Holly Golightly as embodied by Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 film adaptation of Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s. While the enduring iconic status of the little black dress and the continuing relevance of its seemingly effortless, immaculate chic are reflected in the contemporary shorthand “LBD,” this paper surveys the role of the little black dress in the discursive narratives and representations of these two female figures respectively associated with originating and popularizing the look in the 1920’s and 1960’s.
In strikingly similar stories, both Coco Chanel and Hepburn’s Holly Golightly are born poor and reinvent themselves; both negotiate an entrepreneurial femininity in ambiguous relation to patriarchal constraints in historical contexts characterized by flux regarding women’s opportunities. Chanel’s much-mythologized invention of her “little nothing” black dress and, significantly, her self-invention as a fashion designer both occur in 1910’s/1920’s Paris populated by cocottes, grisettes, and mistresses of uncertain status (including Gabrielle herself) whose identities reflect shifting ideologies regarding women’s relation to public space and the politics of sexual exchange. This narrative is similarly dramatized forty years later by Hepburn’s Holly Golightly, the reinvented rural runaway who makes her way in postwar New York via ambiguous “dates” with the city’s wealthy male “rats.” The 1961 film, arguably best remembered for Holly’s two black dresses, frequently employs cinematic strategies associated with advertising, glamorizing as well a new American sexual contract codified a year later by Helen Gurley Brown’s Sex and the Single Girl.
About the presentersJohn Bryan Jacob
John Jacob teaches fashion design and costume history at Radford University. His scholarly work focuses on the intersections between fashion, clothing, the body and gender in 20th century and 21st century cultures.
Dabrina Anne Taylor
Dabrina Taylor, Ph.D. (University of Maryland, College Park, 1997, American Studies) teaches American Studies and Gender Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.