The Little Black Dress

The subject of clothes has been on my mind recently, since I often think of clothing during the polishing stage of a manuscript. I’m working on Seized & Seduced (Jannike’s story) and Jannike has spent most of the story wearing the same blue tunic and black trews with boots. She does have a set of lacy red lingerie that she picked up during her vacation on Earth, but that’s it when it comes to the clothing stakes. I’ve been thinking she needs an occasion to wear a little black dress.

In Captured & Seduced the women of the Indy get new dresses to wear to a ball. Here’s a short excerpt to give you an idea of what I’m dealing with when it comes to Jannike.

The gowns were the same style although different colors to suit their complexions. They required a base garment beneath to yank in their waists and force their breasts upward.

“What was Ry thinking?” Jannike wheezed. “I can’t breathe. How the devil do I fight in this?”

“I don’t believe you’re meant to fight,” Mogens said in his dry way. “It’s a ball. You’re meant to dance.”

“We can always poke out eyes with our fingernails,” Kaya said cheerfully.

“Or stomp on people’s feet,” Camryn added. “Although maybe one look at our hands will do the trick.” She held them up for inspection. “I scrubbed for half an hour and couldn’t remove the dirt.”

“True. My fingernails might work.” Jannike lifted the skirts of her long hunter green gown to inspect one shoe. “The shoes don’t look robust enough for kicking. I’ll need to stick to stomping.” She scratched the back of her neck, unused to the ornate hairstyle as much as the unaccustomed finery.

“This is a dance,” Ry said sternly from the doorway of the hotel room they’d rented. “There won’t be any need to fight.”

It’s said Coco Chanel was the instigator of the little black dress. In 1926 one of her designs for a simple black dress appeared in Vogue. Vogue said the dress would become a staple in every woman’s wardrobe—a black dress that would fit every occasion and make a woman feel good about herself. Something classic that a woman could dress up or down.

Karl Lagerfeld famously said, “One is never over-dressed or under-dressed with a Little Black Dress.”

I have a Pinterest board for Little Black Dresses, but the truth is I don’t have one of my own. When I was younger, I didn’t suit black. Now that I’m a little older, my skin tones have changed and I do sometimes wear black. I’m on the lookout for a little black dress and maybe one day I’ll find one I adore.

Do you own a little black dress?