When my 13-year-old daughter needed a dress for her school Jingle Ball last December, I proffered my knee-length Oasis black shift. She chose my black short-sleeved Noa Noa dress. The fact that both were as suitable for a young teen in 2022, as they were for me when I bought the latter 15 years ago, and the former nearly three decades ago, surely demonstrates the timelessness of the little black dress. As adaptable now as when Coco Chanel first came up with it in the 1900s.
My Oasis dress was bought for my sixth form dinner. I remember walking in, its high neckline and silhouette somehow transforming my gangly frame into something approaching elegance, and for the first time, making me feel stylish.
After that, the shift dress pops up time and…
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The Simple Things (Digital) - 1 Issue, December 2023