The Little Black Dress Coco Chanel House of Chanel Dress French The Metropolitan Museum of Art A Coco Chanel Little Black Dress, released in 1926. Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, NYC. Gift of Mrs. Georges Gudefin The little black dress (LBD) was popularizedand effectively invented as a modern fashion stapleby French designer Coco Chanel in 1926. At a time when black was largely associated with mourning, Chanel introduced A designer in mourning quietly sketched something radicalan outfit the world wasn't ready for It was 1926. Coco Chanel, still grieving the loss of the love of her life, kept dressing the