The Black Dress by Valerie Steele is great for those who want to look at pretty dresses and read quick and interesting quotes – no heavy reading required for this book.

This book starts off with an essay written by Valerie Steele, who is the Director of Chief Curator of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (which is fabulous if you haven't been). The book then continues with glossy photos of famously fashionable black dresses in history accompanied by fun quotes like this one:

"For her fifth wedding, the bride wore black and carried a scotch and soda" – Phyllis Battelle on Heiress Barbara Hutton.

For those who want a bit more meat, the end of the book has more detailed blurbs about each photographed dress and its place in history.

The book was nice; it was like flipping through a special edition magazine about black dresses. I would have loved to see more pictures as the book is pretty short but for small price tag I certainly got my moneys worth. The book is listed at $19.95 but is selling for a little over $13 at Amazon.com.