A little black dress is an evening or cocktail dress, cut simply and often with a short skirt, originally made popular in the 1920s by the fashion designer Coco Chanel. Intended by Chanel to be long-lasting, versatile, affordable, accessible to the widest market possible and in a neutral color. Its continued ubiquity is such that many refer to it by the abbreviation LBD.

The "little black dress" is considered essential to a complete wardrobe by many women and fashion observers, who believe it a "rule of fashion" that every woman should own a simple, elegant black dress that can be dressed up or down depending on the occasion: for example, worn with a jacket and pumps for daytime business wear or with more ornate jewellery and accessories for evening. Because it is meant to be a staple of the wardrobe for a number of years, the style of the little black dress ideally should be as simple as possible: a short black dress that is too clearly part of a trend would not qualify because it would soon appear dated.

The Little Black is perfect wardrobe, we are often told, is built around a core of garments known as "investment pieces". Expensive, timeless and perfect-fitting, the theory goes that these items will carry us seamlessly from one season to the next with the help of a judicious update in the form of a chunky bangle here, a platform wedge there. Jeans are one example of these elusive basics, the white shirt another, but it is surely the little black dress (LBD) that tops the list of sartorial priorities.

Smart but understated, sexy but demure, the LBD has provided fashion moments too numerous to mention, from Audrey Hepburn's demure Givenchy shift to Liz Hurley's rather less modest safety-pinned Versace number. But, despite its potential to make icons of us all, in reality it can, like all those other sensible purchases, be underwhelming – flattering but a little unexciting.

Unless, that is, it is in the hands of Osman Yousefzada, the young London designer whose shows are fast becoming one of the biggest draws at the capital's Fashion Weeks. He has earned a reputation for structural tailoring and striking global influences, but it is the dresses that form the core of his collections that have created the biggest stir, prompting US Vogue to hail him the "re-inventor of the Little Black Dress" and winning him celebrity fans, including the actor Thandie Newton and the model Alek Wek.

Earlier this year, a capsule range of 10 dresses for high-street chain Mango – an unusual commission given his relatively low profile outside fashion circles – scored Yousefzada a critical and commercial hit. Now London's Fashion and Textile Museum will honour the 34-year-old as part of an LBD exhibition that opens later this month, where four of his creations will be shown.