Every woman looks good when wearing it, and every woman has at least one little black dress. The little black dress is so popular, so necessary, and so much an institution in women's fashion that we must wonder, how did the little black dress originate?

To understand how the famous little black dress came about, we have to go back in time to the early 1920s. It was during this period in time that women cut their hair and had the desire to wear more revealing fashions while engaging in a fast paced party lifestyle. Women of the 1920s era were usually on thin side and really didn't need fashions that made them look any smaller.

It was during this time period that the now legendary fashion designer Coco Chanel first created and placed the Chanel name on the first little black dress. Coco Chanel's designs are often considered to be the standard of the early twenties in womens fashions because her work was so modern and futuristic.

The womens fashions we typically think of when we envision the flapper era were inspied and encouraged by this famous designer. Chanel was fond of working with neutral colors and soft easy to wear jersey fabrics that were simple in shape and cut. Chanel was able to place comfort and sophistication into the womens fashions she created, and this combination became what is considered by many as revolutionary. It was during her early years, that she designed and introduced the first little black dress to the world of womens fashion with huge success.

First introduced in 1926, wearing black was previously considered to be a color reserved mostly for funerals and periods of mourning. Truly simple and sexy, Chanel's first little black dress design was a sleeveless sheath cut just above the knee. She never dreamed of the huge demand and lasting love women would have for her simple yet elegant little black dress.

Coco Chanel was once quoted as saying, luxury fashions must be comfortable, otherwise the creation is not luxury. The little black dress whether it costs fifty dollars or thousands is designed to look effortlessly make a woman look elegantly sexy in just minutes. While most of us cannot afford to buy Chanel's designer dresses, we can certainly wear our little black dresses with the modern, sophistication she possessed when she designed the classic, little black dress.