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Handbag collector and vintage boutique owner Catherine B. shares her collecting philosophy, her advice for first-time buyers of Hermès and Chanel, and the story of how she came to buy the original Birkin bag

Paris native Catherine B. has had a passion for vintage from a young age. Her boutique, Les Trois Marches, on the Rue Guisarde in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighbourhood, is dedicated to vintage Hermès and Chanel and as such it overflows with the highest-quality handbags, jewellery and scarves from the two brands. Paris Hilton and Garance Doré are among its many clients.

In 1994, the same year in which she opened Les Trois Marches, Catherine B. achieved another distinction within the world of handbags when she became the owner of the Holy Grail for collectors: the original Hermès handbag made for Jane Birkin.

It was fitting, therefore, that we caught up with the collector and boutique owner at The Apartment at L'Hotel, Paris, where Birkin once lived with Serge Gainsbourg - 'Serge and I tried out all the rooms,' Birkin said - to talk about why she started collecting handbags, how she would advise first-time Hermès and Chanel buyers, and the story of that bag.
Tell us about yourself. When did you become interested in vintage?
Catherine B: 'I'm 100-per-cent Parisienne, born and raised in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. I have always loved fashion but never wanted to work in fashion, which is fundamentally about things being "in" or "out". I've always loved old things: objects that have had a life, that tell a story.'
How did you come to open Les Trois Marches?
CB: 'I spent 10 years out of Paris, and when I returned in the 1990s I knew I wanted to open a boutique in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. One day I spotted a store for sale in the neighbourhood. It was just nine square meters, but I fell in love.

'The next day I returned with my father, and he said, "This used to be a barbershop - your great-grandfather had his beard trimmed here every Sunday!" I don't really believe in chance, so that was it. I bought the space and opened Les Trois Marches in 1994.

'The Saint-Germain-des-Prés location meant that I was quickly able to start acquiring incredible pieces through word of mouth. The boutique really pulls people in. Some clients have come regularly for 25 years, even if they have no desire to add to their collections.'
You specialise in Hermès and Chanel. Why these brands? For collectors looking to acquire their first piece from these houses, what would you suggest?
CB: 'Hermès and Chanel are the only two houses whose manufacturing is truly "Made in France". That's key for me. I've always loved both equally:Hermès is classic, very "gentleman farmer", while Chanel has an air of youth, the "happy few".

'For a new Hermès collector, start with scarves. The quality is exceptional, and there's always a good moment to wear one. In terms of bags, go for a Kelly, no matter what size. If you're in the market for a Birkin, go for early 1990s editions in box leather. Both the Kelly and the Birkin are perennials. Hermès doesn't make bags to buy today and forget tomorrow; they are meant to be passed from generation to generation. Always prioritise leather quality, never what colour is trendy today.
READ: What every collector needs to know about Hermès handbags
'At Chanel, start with vintage Gripoix pâte de verre jewellery. In terms of bags, start with a flap bag in black lambskin - though really any colour will do!'
You famously acquired at auction the very first Birkin bag, created by Hermès for Jane Birkin in 1984. How did that come about?
CB: 'In 2000, a friend at a Paris auction house said she had something I needed to see. When I went to visit, she brought out a bag from a safe. It was one I had seen a thousand times in photos on the arm of Jane Birkin. [It was the first-ever Birkin bag, released in 1984, created for the actress by Hermès chief executive Jean-Louis Dumas.] I said, "That can't possibly be THE bag." I had to have it.

'In 1994 - the same year I opened Les Trois Marches - Birkin had donated the bag to a Paris auction to raise money for an AIDS charity. No one knew where it had gone since, and I never imagined it would come up for auction again.

'When I won the bidding my first thought was, "How am I going to pay for this?", but I had sold some other pieces in order to buy it. And no, I'm never selling!'
The Birkin has been exhibited at the Galeries Lafayette in Paris, Liberty's in London, and the MoMA in New York. How did these collaborations come up, and where would you like it to go next?
CB: 'Not long after I acquired the Birkin, I was contacted by the communications director of the Galeries Lafayette, which was looking to exhibit iconic pieces. I told him I owned the original Birkin, and he couldn't believe it! Next came Liberty in 2014, followed in 2017 by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which wanted the bag for itsIs Fashion Modern exhibition.

'I would love to show it in Asia - maybe Hong Kong or Tokyo. I've also been contacted by someone in haute couture in India, so that could be possible.'
What do you look for when acquiring for the store?
CB: 'The fact that Les Trois Marches is tiny helps me to curate severely what I put in it - I reject mountains of things every day. My rule of thumb is I never buy anything for the store that I myself wouldn't want to find there.

'The first thing I look for is authenticity. Then I consider what is special about the piece: ideally, I want each object in my collection to mark a turning point in a brand's history.'

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Any fun anecdotes from your time running Les Trois Marches?
CB: 'One day a man visited the store, and I fell into a long discussion with him. I showed him all the varieties of Hermès crocodile, and explained their differences, and he listened politely - I thought I was about to sell him something.

'When he left, another client told me it was the creator of the Birkin - Dumas himself! He'd spent an hour discussing Hermès bags with me, and I'd had no idea who he was.'
Is there another job you would have loved?
CB: 'An auctioneer! But it's good I didn't become one - I would have bought even more handbags!'
With thanks to L'Hotel, 13 rue des Beaux-Arts, 75006, Paris, France

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Handbag tips from the owner of Jane Birkin's original Birkin bag | Christie's

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Handbag collector and vintage boutique owner Catherine B. shares her collecting philosophy, her advice for first-time buyers of Hermès and Chanel, and the story of how she came to buy the original Birkin bag Paris native Catherine B. has had a passion for vintage from a young age.

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Pierre Cardin's “Space” Collection, Autumn/Winter 1967

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Pierre Cardin's “Space” Collection, Autumn/Winter 1967

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https://www.artspace.com/magazine/art_101/book_report/phaidon-the-fashion-book-tech-future-designer-picks-53762

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7th March 1966: Op art fashions in pure silk jersey by Naka, modelled by Maureen Lynn and Sue Marshall.

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7th March 1966: Op art fashions in pure silk jersey by Naka, modelled by Maureen Lynn and Sue Marshall.

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Top, Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, 1976, England. Museum no. T.93-2002.

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Bondage suit, Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, 1976, England. Museum no. T.252&A-1989

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Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto is famed for putting an androgynous, directional spin on traditionally feminine avant-garde designs, and pioneering the fashion-meets-sportswear aesthetic. This is how Yamamoto's signature dark designs and draped tailoring have impacted how we dress today.

When Yohji Yamamoto first burst onto the fashion scene with the launch of his label in 1981, he introduced a dark approach to luxury womenswear that shook the industry. Famed for his androgynous avant-garde collections, his work and its global success set the premise for a generation of innovative East Asian creatives in a world previously governed by a Western aesthetic.

Yamamoto honed his craft at famous Japanese design school Bunka Fashion College and, upon graduating, was awarded a year's placement in Paris by his university. But the city's most famous couture houses were branching into ready-to-wear collections at the time - an art form that Yamamoto had not practised - so it was not until returning to Japan that Yamamoto established a clear direction for his brand. He showed his first collection in Tokyo in 1977.

Yamamoto's signature aesthetic, which hinged on all-black, body-engulfing designs, put a new spin on tailoring and stood out among the cinched waists, shoulder pads and bold block colours that ruled the 1980s fashion scene. In an era of rainbow brights, a dark colour palette had the shock factor.

"Black is modest and arrogant at the same time," he told The New York Times in 2000. "Black is easy and lazy but mysterious ... But above all black says this: 'I don't bother you. Don't bother me.'"

It's a look that remains at the core of Yamamoto's collections today, along with a sense of timelessness. "His garments are designed to last beyond seasons, and there's a continued idea of concealing rather than revealing the body," says Ligaya Salazar, the curator behind the V&A Museum's 2011 retrospective and celebration of Yamamoto's work. "He starts every design with fabric as opposed to silhouette. It's a typically Japanese approach."

In 1981, Yamamoto took his label from Tokyo back to Paris, where it remains to this day. It is a fitting home, considering the label's focus on craftsmanship, couture-like detailing and exceptional quality for both its women's and men's collections. "Yamamoto took a totally different approach to every other designer in Paris in the '80s and '90s," says Salazar. "It offered the industry a release from what was typically considered to be 'high fashion'."

When he opened his first Parisian store in 1981, it coincided with the first Paris Fashion Week runway presentation from fellow Japanese designer Rei Kawakubo. Her label, Comme des Garçons, placed similar focus on the imperfect and championed asymmetric cuts. Together the designers brought something totally unexpected to the French capital and put a distinctive spin on haute-couture techniques.

"This is [one of] the final industries that is finished by hand, which I like," Yamamoto once told The Business of Fashion. "I'm still focused on how to cut and how to make movement beautiful. It's very important to me that the design of all my clothes is done in this way."

This dedication to detail is a trait that can be seen not just in Yamamoto's namesake label, but in his sports-inspired label Y-3, too. When he famously collaborated with German fitness giant Adidas in 2003, he created a new menswear label that pioneered the fusion of fashion and technology and introduced sports-luxe style to the world. It was a totally new kind of design for Yamamoto.

Y-3 now boasts standalone stores all over the world, and is stocked at online retail giants Farfetch and Mr Porter. "It's the perfect blend of style and function, and, as one of the first cult sportswear lines on the market, it elevated streetwear style while contributing to the rise in sneaker popularity," says contemporary buyer at Mr Porter, George Archer.

As advancements in technology continue, Yamamoto's celebration of innovative sportswear does also. Archer believes the increasingly casual approach to menswear dressing is partially down to the Y-3 label. "It provides men with an opportunity to play with shape and movement," he says. "His layering pieces, long hem lines and dark colours are consistent across seasons and are easy to wear."

The world is waiting for Yamamoto's next big idea, and the ways in which it will influence runways, high streets and wardrobes all over the globe.

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Yohji Yamamoto, the Japanese Designer Who Redefined Avant-Garde Fashion

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Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto is famed for putting an androgynous, directional spin on traditionally feminine avant-garde designs, and pioneering the fashion-meets-sportswear aesthetic. This is how Yamamoto's signature dark designs and draped tailoring have impacted how we dress today.

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Yohji Yamamoto, Spring-Summer 1983

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For the first time in recent fashion memory, black - essential, existential black - is no longer the ultimate symbol of cool. Black has dominated designer dressing, just as it has clad the entire fashion profession, since the wave of Japanese style swept over fashion in the early 1980s.

But now color has burst into the autumn clothes. Bright hues and subtle patterns are challenging dark and monochrome - and nowhere more so than from the designers for whom black was once the only fashion creed.

Yohji Yamamoto has built a career on proving that black - aggressive, rebellious, somber, romantic or seductive - is beautiful. He, more than most designers, is the poet of black, the director of fashion's film noir. In fact, a celluloid version of his favorite men in black was shown Saturday at the Venice film festival, where Yamamoto designed the costumes (not to mention the loud jewelry) for "Brother," a new movie by Takeshi Kitano about the yakuza, Japanese gangsters.

What is the lure of black that Yamamoto has been addicted to it since he first graduated from fashion college in Tokyo in 1969?

"Why black?" says Yamamoto, sitting in his Paris studio, black beard and black hair above a dense black honeycomb sweater, mat-black pants and black sneakers flashed with scarlet.

"Black is modest and arrogant at the same time," he says. "Black is lazy and easy - but mysterious. It means that many things go together, yet it takes different aspects in many fabrics. You need black to have a silhouette. Black can swallow light, or make things look sharp. But above all black says this: 'I don't bother you - don't bother me!"'

All this is said with a merry smile that belies Yamamoto's reputation as a designer of clothes for earnest intellectuals. Recent collections have shown rather a whimsical sense of humor: the Inuit-inspired autumn line with its russet paisleys and furry hoods, and the 1998 "wedding" show, in which a bridal "striptease" took models from inflated Victorian crinolines to slim-line dresses and pants.

For men, the art-director image of black suit with truncated proportions, shown on brawny-to-scrawny guys, has also been replaced by a more macho, even rock-star look. (As recreation, Yamamoto plays guitar or harmonica with a group called Suicide City.)

Yamamoto cut his fashion teeth in his widowed mother's dressmaking business, but rebelled at the clients' arriving with magazine styles to copy.

"At the very beginning, I just wanted women in men's style," he says. "Typically Japanese women were wearing imported and very feminine things and I didn't like it. I jumped on the idea of designing coats for women. It meant something for me - the idea of a coat guarding a home, hiding the woman's body. Maybe I liked imagining what is inside."

When an avant-garde buyer gave Yamamoto his first corner in a store, he was faced with what he calls elliptically "very strong competition" and "the start of my Olympic games." He was referring to the designs of Rei Kawakubo, his long-term partner and fashion picador under her label Comme des Garcons. Together - yet with entirely separate aesthetics - they created dark shrouds, asymmetrically cut in fluid, indeterminate shapes, and sheltering sweaters that clothed the acolytes of the all-black cult.

Of course, Japanese designers did not introduce black to 20th-century fashion, as witness the Parisian elegance of Coco Chanel's little black dress or Yves Saint Laurent's tuxedo, and rebellious style from Beatniks through Marlon Brando. But there was an abstraction, a modernism and a lack of visual definition in the work of fashion's avant garde that seemed to be layered in meaning, in the spirit of Mark Rothko's "dark" paintings.

Yamamoto, born in 1943, describes a "lost" postwar generation, educated to look to America or Europe and ignore Japanese tradition. So when his experiments in pushing the boundaries of shape and proportion were hailed as "Japanese" style, he was baffled.

Yamamoto sees his original look emerging from punk. His first collection was presented in Tokyo in 1977 and in Paris in 1981 when the "Japanese" (including Issey Miyake and Kenzo Takada, who were five years his senior) seemed diametrically opposed to everything that French fashion stood for: its well-defined cut and silhouette, its familiar fabrics, its conception of female allure and coquetry. Even 15 years later, when Carolyn Bessette Kennedy favored Yamamoto's designs in the mid-1990s, her choice of flat-plane, dark clothes to frame her good looks still seemed revolutionary.

The French electronic musician Jean-Michel Jarre once defined Yamamoto's style like this: "His work is totally different from anything else. I like the quasi-religious approach he has to fashion. For me, a woman in Yohji is like a nymphomaniac nun. His clothes are at once sensual and very ritualistic."

That phrases captures the eroticism lurking under the skillful tailoring of a purist exterior. In his genuine affection for women, Yamamoto stands apart in a fashion world where male designers tend either to idolize or to dislike the female sex. He admits that "my life is thinking about women."

"First my mother - last my daughter," he says. "And in between are all the secret ones."

Mother, daughter and son (who has brought him a granddaughter) all work in the business: His mother is the revered directrice; his daughter was launched in March, after three years as pattern cutter, as designer of the ready-to-wear line called Y's bis Limi. The proud father claims, "She'll be strong - she'll be bigger than me."

Yamamoto's career reached its zenith with the 1998 "wedding" collection. It confirmed the new, romantic path he had taken as he shifted register from masculine to feminine. The catalyst was his study of haute couture. He pored over the neo-Edwardian gowns of the American designer Charles James at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in the summer of 1999, when he was in New York to pick up an American Fashion Award. In the jigsaw of pattern pieces he uncovered "another designer's process."

The museum has now asked him to curate a fashion exhibition from its archives. It will open in autumn 2001 and thus commemorate the anniversary of 20 years showing in Paris, although Yamamoto says he is thinking not of his past but of "tomorrow and the day after tomorrow." At 56, he thinks vaguely of retiring and of fulfilling his ambition to write. He worries that others might think, "Yohji, you have sung your song already."

A recent Yamamoto signature has been the swoop of a back, from the geisha-esque curve of the nape through the base of the spine to the neo-Victorian bustle.

"This is my fetish idea for a woman's body," he says. "I like the back curve line of women. I am always watching the silhouette in the streets. The rib cage and the hip is very important for me. The image represents the back of a woman. I'm always following her. Don't go! Don't leave me!"

Don't count on Yamamoto, or his women, turning their backs on black.

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Fashion's Poet of Black : YAMAMOTO (Published 2000)

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For the first time in recent fashion memory, black - essential, existential black - is no longer the ultimate symbol of cool. Black has dominated designer dressing, just as it has clad the entire fashion profession, since the wave of Japanese

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Yohji Yamamoto, Fall-Winter 1986-87 | Photo: Nick Knight

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Yohji Yamamoto, Fall-Winter 1986-87 | Photo: Nick Knight

# data[].attributes.body
Film will continuously be an advocate for the use of black fabric in womens clothes. as seen in the film sabrina from 1954 where audrey hepburn wears an amzing black pants suit.

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However 1950s ready-to-wear was full of elegance which black fabric ensured.

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In 1947 Christian Dior created the bar suit in Paris, which defied all rationing in the 1940s as the skirt was made from 5 meters of fabric. It combined a white jacket that nipped the waist with a black skirt flowing from it. It is all that is elegance with the addition of the black gloves to compliment the skirt.

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However, in the US rationing was not as strict which allowed American designers to thrive during the 1940s. Therefore they were still creating gorgeous ready-to-wear garments, seen in Norell's subway costume that combined sequins and black fabric to enhance the colour and sparkle.

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During WW2 there was strict rationing on fabrics and clothing, especially in the UK, which resulted in utility clothing that used minimal fabric and labour to create. Therefore, unless you were of high society you couldn't deliberate on the colour or style. The use of black ensured women still looked elegant and smart even through WW2.

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The Schiaparelli rococo scrollwork jacket created for the Duchesses summer wardrobe in 1937 was a feature in her Vogue photoshoot with Cecil Beaton. The photoshoot was to help launch a new duchess of Windsor as her reputation was very poor, this shoot combines politics, social status, and art. This garment combines the changing nature of black in women's clothing to be timeless and elegant, as it can be paired with so many different elements while still speaking for itself.

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Not all in Hollywood kept to the social standards of female beauty. Marlene Dietrich went against these standards in the film Morocco wearing a men's tuxedo. This was the first woman to wear a tuxedo in film.

# data[].attributes.body
Due to society looking towards Hollywood as an escape from the struggles of the great depression there was not an extreme about of black used in dresses with some having black details to create contrast, however, by this period black was seen as elegant and smart. It was seen on many women in Hollywood from Greta Garbo to Marlene Dietrich.

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Film was one of the most important contributing factors to the popularity of the little black dress. Its debut in film was when paramount designer Travis Banton put Clara Bow in a little black dress for the film IT cementing the dress into people's minds. In the film Clara is seen cutting the dress to turn it from a work dress into an elegant little black dress as she could not afford to buy a new dress, this defines the versatility of the little black dress in any class.

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Channel’s creation of the little black dress removed black dresses from only being of mourning. The Channel Ford dress was the first little black dress published in vogue. Channel turned the black dress into something that was elegant and suitable for any occasion and any class.

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The flappers rejected pre-war social values of the ideal standard of beauty for women, they drove, drank, and smoked. Their dresses rose to just below the knee, with some just above the knee in the late 20s. Coco Channel and Paul Poiret helped this style become popular, with the silhouette being straight and slim. Due to their rejection of pre-war social values, it is not surprising that many of their dresses are made of black fabrics as this fabric had only just been removed from only mourning attire.

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Even in the span of 12 years, the House of Worth's black gowns changed drastically from the 1906 gown featuring a train however it still held characteristics of mourning dresses. This 1918 black gown with beading and sheer sleeves brings light into the harsh tone of the black

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In the early 1900s black fabrics were becoming used more in high society couture as evening gowns rather than mourning gowns. The house of worth created couture gowns using black fabrics.

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The daughter-in-law of Queen Victoria, Queen Alexandra softened mourning restrictions after the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. She only wore half mourning attire of mauve silk, chiffon, sequins with pale yellow and grey after the death of Queen Victoria and her eldest son until her death in 1925.

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Queen Victoria wore full mourning known as Widows’ Weeds from the death of her husband Prince Albert in 1961 until her death in 1901. This differed greatly from the societal norms of mourning during this period.

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During the mid-late 1800s, the mourning process for women towards their late husbands included two and a half years of mourning in 2 stages, full-mourning and half-mourning. High society women wore an entire mourning dress known as Widows Weeds to ensure the lower society understood the rules as there was a growing middle class. This attire was symbolic of the social values and women's position in society compared to men. As women were seen "as a showpiece to display their family’s respectability and wealth".

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During the 1880s there became more research into the medical impacts of fabrics and dyes. The New York medical journal declared that the "minute particles of poisonous crape [caused] irritation to the respiratory tract" while another article declared that the mourning veil was an "instrument of torture in hot weather, staining the face and filling the lungs with toxic particles."
However, its popularity among manufacturers was due to it being made from waste silk and thus cheaper to produce.

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This dress by Christina Stambolian cascaded into the public

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Marc Jacobs was the first to send grunge down the runway which ultimately got him fired. The collection included a variety of colours from bright yellows and pink to grey and black, it combined the grunge subculture and ready-to-wear fashion.

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This subculture started in the 80s but became a mainstream fashion in the 90s. It was the result of the music genres of punk and rock with the collaboration of fashion. However, Marc Jacobs and Vogue made a social change for the subculture as it hit high-end fashion in the 90s.

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As black becomes a norm in fashion and clothing it is no surprise it continued to be used by channel to create elegance.

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The use of black can be seen in every aspect of fashion in the 1980s and so on. It has become a part of clothing and fashion from streetwear, subcultures to high-end designer garments. From Vivienne Westwood to channel.

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Vivienne Westwood  1981 Pirate collection

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Vivienne Westwood  1981 Pirate collection

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Westwood's pirate collection shows both men and women wearing similar androgynous garments, her use of black created contrast between other brighter colours like yellow and red.

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Again in film an elegant black dress is seen on Mirielle Dar.

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This garment by Yves Saint Laurent was an exact copy of the mens tuxedo but adapted it to the female body. However it was not initially received well by the public as socialite Nan Kempner was denied entrace into a resraunt in new york while wearing the tuxedo, she proceeded to take off the pants and went inside with the jacket now as a dress. http://thegirlontv.com/le-smoking-the-first-tuxedo-for-women/

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Breakfast at Tiffanys will always be one of the most gorgeous black outfits in film history.

# data[].attributes.body
Film will continuously be an advocate for the use of black fabric in womens clothes. as seen in the film sabrina from 1954 where audrey hepburn wears an amzing black pants suit.

# data[].attributes.body
Due to Dior's drastic new look the of the high-end fashion industry flourished again. with many designers turning to black fabric for elegance and class

# data[].attributes.body
However 1950s ready-to-wear was full of elegance which black fabric ensured.

# data[].attributes.body
Diors wasp waist continued as the new look into the 50s from the housewife to ready to wear. However, due to societal changes with women meant to be the housewife, these shirtwaist dresses were bright and colourful reflecting the fun nature of the 'housewife'.

# data[].attributes.body
In 1947 Christian Dior created the bar suit in Paris, which defied all rationing in the 1940s as the skirt was made from 5 meters of fabric. It combined a white jacket that nipped the waist with a black skirt flowing from it. It is all that it elegance with the addition of the black gloves to compliment the skirt.

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America in the 1940s, Norman Norell Subway Costume

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America in the 1940s, Norman Norell Subway Costume

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However, in the US rationing was not as strict which allowed American designers to thrive during the 1940s. Therefore they were still creating gorgeous ready-to-wear garments, seen in Norell's subway costume that combined sequins and black fabric to enhance the colour and sparkle.

# data[].attributes.body
During WW2 there was strict rationing on fabrics and clothing especially in the uk, which resulted in utility clothing that used minimal fabric and labor to create. Therefore unless you were of high society you couldn't deliberate on the colour or style. The use of black ensured women still looked elegant and smart even through WW2.

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Duchess of Windsor and Schiaparelli 1937  

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Duchess of Windsor and Schiaparelli 1937  

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The Schiaparelli rococo scrollwork jacket created for the Duchesses summer wardrobe in 1937 was a feature in her Vogue photoshoot with Cecil Beaton. The photoshoot was to help launch a new duchess of Windsor as her reputation was very poor, this shoot combines politics, social status, and art.   This garment combines the changing nature of black in women's clothing to be timeless and elegant, as it can be paired with so many different elements while still speaking for itself.

# data[].attributes.body
Not all in Hollywood kept to the social standards of female beauty. Marlene Dietrich went against these standards in the film Morocco wearing a men's tuxedo. This was the first women to wear a tuxedo in film.

# data[].attributes.body
Due to society looking towards Hollywood as an escape from the struggles of the great depression there was not an extreme about of black used in dresses with some having black details to create contrast, however black was seen as elegant. However, there were some, these including Greta Garbo and Vivien Leigh.

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During the 1930s Hollywood was a thriving industry due to the wall street crash of 1929 that resulted in the great depression. For many people, this was a very difficult time to live in, so they looked towards Hollywood and film as an escape from the struggles of the great depression.

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1927 the Little Black Dresses film debut 

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1927 the Little Black Dresses film debut 

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The little black dress's debut in film was when paramount designer Travis Banton put Clara Bow in one for the film IT cementing it into people's minds. In the film Clara is seen cutting the dress to turn it from a work dress into an elegant little black dress as she could not afford to buy a new dress, this defines the versatility of the little black dress to any class.

# data[].attributes.body
The Channel Ford dress was the first little black dress published in vogue. She turned the black dress into something that was elegant, suitable for any occasion and any class.

# data[].attributes.body
The flappers rejected pre-war social values, they drove, drank, and smoked. Their dresses rose to just below the knee, with some just above the knee in the late 20s. Coco Channel and Paul Poiret helped this style become popular, with the silhouette being straight and slim. Due to their rejection of pre-war social values, it is not surprising that many of their dresses are made of black fabrics as this fabric had only just been removed from only mourning attire.

# data[].attributes.body
Even in the span of 12 years, the House of Worth's black gowns changed drastically from the 1906 gown featuring a train however it still held characteristics of mourning dresses. This 1918 black gown with beading and sheer sleeves brings light into the harsh tone of the black fabric.

# data[].attributes.body
In the early 1900s black fabrics were becoming used more in high society couture as evening gowns rather than mourning gowns. The house of worth created couture gowns using black fabrics.

# data[].attributes.body
The daughter-in-law of Queen Victoria, Queen Alexandra softened mourning restrictions after the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. As she only wore half mourning attire of mauve silk, chiffon, sequins with pale yellow and grey after the death of Queen Victoria and her eldest son until her death in 1925.

# data[].attributes.headline
Queen Victoria in mourning dress 1861-1901

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Queen Victoria in mourning dress 1861-1901

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During the mid-late 1800s, the mourning process for women towards their late husbands included two and a half years of mourning in 2 stages full-mourning and half-mourning. High society wore an entire mourning dress known as Widows Weads to ensure the lower society understood the rules as there was a growing middle class wearing full widows weads was a sign of respectability. (https://enoughofthistomfoolery.wordpress.com/2016/07/17/women-in-black-mourning-fashion-and-etiquette-1870-1939/). This attire was symbolic of the social values and the women's position in society compared to men. As women "as a showpiece to display their families respectability and wealth" (https://enoughofthistomfoolery.wordpress.com/2016/07/17/women-in-black-mourning-fashion-and-etiquette-1870-1939/).

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due to the industrial revolution, there were improved manufacturing techniques resulting in the mass production of black fabrics and crepes