For many women, the little black dress is the go-to item in the closet. “You can wear black any time. You can wear it at any age. You may wear it on almost any occasion. A little black frock is essential to a woman,” the iconic Christian Dior said in 1954.

Gerik Parmele photo

To demonstrate the versatility of the little black dress, we took a simple sheath from Dillard’s to four Columbia boutiques to find accessories. Our model, Kirsten Williams, shows the results. Black dress by Tahari, $128. •  See the Slide Show

More than 50 years later, Dior’s statement holds true. Although fashion is fickle, the LBD remains a constant. The look is sleek, simple and undeniably chic.

Kirsteen Buchanan, associate professor of fashion design at Stephens College, offers these tips for choosing an LBD:

Analyze your figure and decide what you want to emphasize. “You want to draw the eyes away from and towards certain things,” Buchanan said. “If you’re someone who’s really hippy, maybe you want something with a full skirt instead of a sheath dress. If you have a beautiful neck and shoulders, you can choose a beautiful neckline that will emphasize that.”

Choose a comfortable fabric that can be worn year-round, such as tropical wool. A hint of Lycra will allow the dress to retain its shape.

Fragile fabrics, such as chiffon, look great but might not last as long as more substantial materials.

For something that will last, look for dresses with greater seam allowances, which will make it easy to have the dress let in or out. “You want it to be alterable because, of course, your shape changes over time,” Buchanan said.

Check the hem to see how much you can lengthen the dress if longer skirts come into style.

Details such as lining, invisible zippers and taped hems are indicators of quality construction.

A sleeveless or short-sleeved dress will make the transition from season to season more easily than a long-sleeved dress. In the winter, simply throw on a jacket or cardigan, Buchanan said.

Keep it simple. “I like a dress that has a really simple neckline so the collar doesn’t get in the way of all your great jewelry,” Buchanan said. “Then you can change looks easily.”

For something a little different, try a black-on-black pattern, such as a woven jacquard or shadow stripe. “If you can find a dress that has a texture woven into the fabric, it will keep the dress simple, but it will be interesting,” Buchanan said.

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LBDs through the ages

1861: Queen Victoria wore black for the rest of her life after Prince Albert died. Anglophilic fashionistas took note.

1884: John Singer Sargent’s painting “Madame X,” which first appeared at the Paris Salon, was so scandalous for the time it had to be removed from the exhibit.P

1926: Vogue declared Chanel’s LBD “a sort of uniform for women of taste.”

1930: Betty Boop, created in 1930, originally wore a cleavage-baring LBD.

1940s: Christian Dior’s New Look was a revolt against the stringency of World War II fashions, using luxurious fabrics and sweeping, flower-like silhouettes.

1994: Elizabeth Hurley’s Versace LBD, worn at the premiere of “Four Weddings and a Funeral” in London, emphasized Hurley’s form with plunging lines held together by gold safety pins.

1994: On the night Prince Charles confessed to adultery on TV, Princess Diana attended a charity event wearing a body-skimming, off-the shoulder Christina Stambolian LBD, quickly dubbed “the revenge dress.”

2006: Natalie Portman wears Audrey Hepburn’s LBD from “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar, proving a true classic never dies. The Givenchy dress auctioned for $807,000 at Christie’s in London.

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