Chanel's Little Black Jacket

Some designer pieces become instant classics and Chanel's little black jacket (LBJ) is one of them. Created by Coco Chanel in the 1950s, the piece has endured and evolved through the decades, been reinvented, tailored, cropped, embellished and made available in myriad colors along the way.

The garment was inspired by Austrian jackets for men and teamed with a matching suit skirt that fell just below the knee. In contrast to the tight, restrictive styles of the day, Chanel designed her jacket to be structured yet supple, with sleeves cut on the straight grain and no shoulder pads or stiffening