Little Black Dress at 100

For nearly 100 years, a single garment—the little black dress—has stood at the heart of women’s fashion.

In the 1961 movie classic Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Audrey Hepburn immortalized a simple black dress as ultimate elegance. Tina Turner wore dozens of black minidresses on stage in the 70s and 80s to signal her independence and rock-and-roll spirit.  In 1994, Princess Diana wore a velvet, off-the-shoulder black cocktail dress to mask a broken heart. Later that decade, the black slip dress was everywhere on celebrities from Gwyneth Paltrow to Jennifer Aniston to Victoria Beckham. In 2022, the singer Rihanna celebrated her pregnant shape in a sheer black dress at Paris Fashion Week. Since Vogue magazine declared Coco Chanel’s little black dress “the frock that all the world will wear” in 1926, it has captured the fashion world’s imagination.

The little black dress—affectionately known as the LBD—has evolved every year and every decade to respond to changes in style and culture. The color black forces a designer to concentrate on line, texture, and cut and to be especially attuned to the way the dress fabric drapes over a wearer’s body. At the same time, a great black dress is a blank canvas that can be dressed up or down to perfectly fit the occasion.

In honor of the upcoming 100th anniversary of Coco Chanel’s groundbreaking little black dress, this exhibition features LBDs drawn from the collections of the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum and the K-State Historic Costume and Textile Museum. Little Black Dress at 100 showcases examples by high-end designers as well as affordable, everyday versions, all worn by Kansas women.

Distinguished Sponsors
Deborah Sinclair
Janice and Jeff Van Sickle

2025 exhibitions and public programs are generously supported by the Downing Foundation.
All museum exhibitions receive generous sponsorship from the Friends of the Wichita Art Museum and the City of Wichita.