22 of Karl Lagerfeld’s best little black dresses

In the ’20s, Coco Chanel ushered in a sleek, contemporary silhouette by way of the now ubiquitous LBD. During his 36-year tenure at Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld continued his predecessor’s legacy, creating knockout black dresses that ruled the red carpet and made for Haute Couture catnip to his muses for decades. Here, we chart 22 of his greatest creations.

Related: Karl & Me: Amanda Harlech remembers Karl Lagerfeld – and styles 16 dynamic looks from ‘A Line of Beauty’

Dazzling at the 2016 Oscars wearing a custom plunging Chanel gown accented with ostentatious glitter, inspired by the maison’s Haute Couture spring/summer 2016 collection.

Schiffer closed many a Lagerfeld Chanel show, here proving her supermodel merit at the 1995 Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in a plunging corsage-detail gown.

Proving herself the ultimate muse, Smith arriving at the maison’s Metier’s D'Art 2016-2017 show in Paris, wearing Chanel, naturally.

Lagerfeld favourite Stewart has worn Chanel countless times on the red carpet. Here she pulls off rebel chic in a cage-detail creation first worn by Binx Walton on the autumn/winter 2016 runway.

At the 11th annual Chanel Tribeca Film Festival Artists Dinner at Balthazar in New York Sevigny sported a leather dress and jacket and grungy lace tights from Chanel’s Pre-Fall 2016 collection.

Stone proving why she was a Lagerfeld muse at the 2017 BAFTAs in London, wearing a floral embroidered Chanel gown with matching trousers from the maison’s Haute Couture spring/summer 2017 collection.

Robbie wears a ruffled Chanel LBD with tasselled details from the house’s Haute Couture autumn/winter 2017 collection at the Charles Finch And Chanel Pre-Oscar Awards Dinner in Beverly Hills.

Diaz dazzled at the Shrek the Third London premiere wearing a Chanel camelia-motif halterneck dress.

The longtime Lagerfeld muse sported a sculptural strapless gown with ’80s aplomb at the Met Gala in 2010.

Allen arriving on the red carpet at the Brit Awards 2010 in a bedazzling and lacquered Chanel creation from the brand’s pre-fall 2010 Paris-Shanghai collection, just one of numerous times she shimmered in the brand.

Knightley – who also chose a sorbet pink Chanel gown for her 2015 nuptials – smoulders in Haute Couture at the world premiere of The Aftermath in London in 2019.

Roaring onto the Met Gala red carpet in 2019 in matching hell-for-leather vintage Chanel.

Thomspon wore a Haute Couture silk muslin bustier dress embroidered with gold beads to the Oscars in 2019, her favourite piece from the Parisian maison’s opulent collection.

Aoki making a case for the super short LBD while attending the Chanel Cruise 2007-2008 show in Santa Monica, California.

Rarely seen on the red carpet in anything but Chanel, Cruz oozes voluminous camelia-motif glamour at the 2020 Oscars, inspired by a gown from the maison’s spring/summer 1995 collection.

Dunst arriving at the premiere of Inside Llewyn Davis at Cannes Film Festival in a two-tone, floral-embroidered gown.

Smouldering in transparent lace Chanel at the the afterparty for screening of La Vie En Rose in New York City.

Longtime muse Monae attending the 2019 Golden Globes in a resplendently futuristic gown from Chanel's Pre-Fall 2019 collection.

Blanchett arriving at the 2007 Golden Globes Awards in a lace-trim Chanel creation with a dramatic train.

Arriving at the 2008 Oscars in LA in another elegant Karl creation, strapless, chic and adorned with feathers.

With her mother a longtime Lagerfeld muse, Lily-Rose has even joked that “Chanel” was the first word she learned how to read. Here she smoulders in a Chanel archive chain-detail gown she wore to the 2019 Met Gala.

Sevigny arriving on the red carpet at the The House That Jack Built premiere in Cannes, in an elegant two tone Chanel creation, and sparkling diamonds and a red lip.

Originally published by British Vogue