Little black dress designed by Coco Chanel to be shown in Edinburgh
The silk dress is on loan from Kunstgewerbemuseum (Museum of Decorative Arts) in Berlin.
Curators at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh are “delighted” to have secured a little black dress designed by Chanel in 1926 to open a new exhibition.
Beyond Little Black Dress, launches in the capital next month, and will bring together more than 60 looks from collections and designers around the world.
It opens with a long-sleeved black day dress designed by Gabrielle Coco Chanel in 1926, which was hailed by US Vogue as “the frock that all the world will wear”.
The silk dress is on loan from Kunstgewerbemuseum (Museum of Decorative Arts) in Berlin.
Georgina Ripley, principal curator of modern and contemporary design at the National Museum of Scotland, said: “"The dress is incredibly significant for its own merit anyway, but for our exhibition it's really pivotal because we are opening the exhibition with the idea that this is kind of the birth of the little black dress.
"The dress that we have on loan from the museum in Berlin is not the exact dress that featured in that Vogue article, but it is the exact same style, made from the same sort of fabric, and it's incredibly rare to actually find little black day dresses from that date in collections.
"It's been amazing for us to be able to locate one, to be able to tell this really important story within the history of the little black dress."
While black was already in fashion before 1926 and other little black dresses had been created, something about Chanel's design was seen as being an important moment in the modernisation of women's fashion.
It challenged the norms around race, gender and sexuality by disregarding convention, with its stark design and shade that more commonly denoted mourning.
Areas of the exhibition are dedicated to highlighting black British designers whose work explores both blackness in terms of identity and the role the colour plays in crafting a futuristic, sci-fi aesthetic.
The exhibition looks at fashions through the decades, from early pieces by Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior and Jean Muir to contemporary designers and brands such as Gareth Pugh, Simone Rocha and Off-White.
The exhibition runs from July 1 until October 29.