Little Black Dress: from Mourning to Night/ Shannon Meyer/160 pages

Little Black Dress: from Mourning to Night, written by Shannon Meyer, is the companion book to an exhibit recently hosted by the St. Louis History Museum.  The book follows the development of the black dress connected to the very rich and widows in the 1800 up to current fashion.  The book is well illustrated with samples of clothing from the exhibition.  Originally, black cloth was prohibitively expensive for most women due to the excessive amount of dye needed to achieve the color.  As dyes became more affordable the use of black became more wide spread, but only for married women.  As taste changed and Coco Chanel grew in popularity, more fashion houses began to create black evening clothing and younger and younger woman began to wore these fashions.  This book offers an interesting look at the evolution of the black dress with a few other interesting asides as well.
 

Nine Women, One Dress/ Jane L. Rosen/ 257 pages

Morris Siegal has created the pattern for 'The Dress', meaning the little black dress that will be the hottest seller of the season.  In her debut novel, Nine Women, One Dress, Jane L. Rosen follows the dress as it passes through the hands of nine very different women.  Starting with the runway model and passing to the department store clerk, the snob, the Hollywood star, the secretary, the detective, the liar, the 'mean girl' and more, the dress changes lives in amazing ways.  Rosen weaves an enjoyable story as the reader follows the dress to each wearer.