Le Smoking
Le Smoking is a tailored women's evening suit consisting of a black jacket with satin lapels and matching trousers, introduced by French designer Yves Saint Laurent in his Autumn-Winter 1966 haute couture collection.[1] The design adapts the men's tuxedo—originally a smoking jacket intended to shield formal attire from cigar odors—for female wear, featuring structured shoulders, a tapered waist, and slim-cut pants to accommodate a feminine form while retaining masculine tailoring elements.[1][2] Debuting amid the 1960s shift toward ready-to-wear and gender-fluid aesthetics, Le Smoking challenged prevailing norms that confined women to gowns for formal occasions, sparking initial controversy as wearers were denied entry to establishments enforcing traditional dress codes.[2][1] Despite resistance from conservative fashion circles, it rapidly gained traction, symbolizing sartorial independence and influencing the widespread adoption of pantsuits in women's wardrobes.[2][3] Yves Saint Laurent drew partial inspiration from Marlene Dietrich's androgynous trousers ensembles of the 1930s, but elevated the concept through precise couture construction, making Le Smoking a cornerstone of modern power dressing that persists in contemporary collections.[4][2] Its enduring legacy lies in democratizing formal menswear for women, fostering innovations in minimalist, minimalist silhouettes that prioritize functionality alongside elegance.[1][2]Origins and Development
Historical Inspirations
The smoking jacket originated in the mid-19th century among European aristocracy as a protective garment worn indoors during tobacco use, shielding formal eveningwear from smoke, ash, and odors; it was typically a short, velvet-collared robe inspired by Eastern banyans or loose robes.[5] This evolved into the modern tuxedo by the 1860s, when a softer, tailless dinner jacket—known as "le smoking" in French—emerged for semi-formal occasions, with early examples attributed to figures like Edward VII seeking comfort over rigid tailcoats around 1865.[6] By 1886, the style gained prominence in the United States after being worn at the Tuxedo Club in New York, standardizing its single-breasted form with satin lapels for evening events.[7] Preceding Yves Saint Laurent's adaptation, women occasionally adopted menswear elements for performative or defiant purposes, with notable early instances in the 1920s including actress Dorothy Mackaill donning a tuxedo on film sets and performer Gladys Bentley incorporating tailored suits into her stage attire.[8] The most influential precedent came in 1930, when Marlene Dietrich appeared in the film Morocco wearing a white men's tuxedo with trousers and top hat, an act that scandalized audiences by subverting gender conventions and foreshadowing androgynous fashion as a marker of empowerment.[9][10] Dietrich's look, repeated in public and other roles, directly echoed the masculine silhouette of the smoking jacket while amplifying its rebellious potential for female wearers, setting a cultural benchmark later referenced in haute couture innovations.[4]Yves Saint Laurent's Innovation
In his Autumn-Winter 1966 haute couture collection, Yves Saint Laurent introduced Le Smoking, a tuxedo suit specifically tailored for women by adapting elements of traditional menswear. The garment consisted of a structured black jacket with satin lapels—reminiscent of the silk-lapelled smoking jacket historically used in men's smoking rooms to shield clothing from cigar odors—and matching trousers, transforming the male-dominated formal silhouette into eveningwear suitable for women.[1][2] YSL's innovation lay in the precise modifications for the female form, including a sleeker collar, gently tapered waist, and overall slim fit that accentuated feminine contours without compromising the jacket's authoritative lines. This was not a mere replication of men's attire but a deliberate fusion that elevated trousers to high-fashion status for formal occasions, defying conventions that confined women to skirts and dresses. The design emerged amid cultural shifts, including France's longstanding 19th-century law prohibiting women from wearing trousers in public (symbolically repealed in 2013), underscoring its role in advancing practical elegance for modern professional women.[1][2] Philosophically, Saint Laurent positioned Le Smoking as timeless style over ephemeral trends, declaring: "For a woman, the tuxedo is an indispensable garment in which she will always feel in style, for it is a stylish garment and not a fashionable garment. Fashions fade, style is eternal." Despite initial commercial hesitance in couture circles—where only one unit sold—it resonated with younger, liberated clientele via the Saint Laurent Rive Gauche ready-to-wear line, cementing its status as a wardrobe staple that persisted in collections until 2002.[1]Design and Features
Core Components
Le Smoking's core design revolves around a tailored black jacket inspired by the men's tuxedo, featuring satin-faced peaked lapels, a single- or double-breasted front, and a gently tapered waist for a feminine silhouette.[2] The jacket is typically constructed from wool crepe or similar structured fabrics, with silk satin details on the lapels and buttons to evoke evening formalwear.[11] Complementing the jacket are straight- or wide-legged trousers, cut high on the waist to elongate the legs while maintaining comfort and mobility, often in matching black fabric with subtle side stripes or satin bands in later iterations.[3] These trousers prioritize a masculine-inspired slim fit adapted for women's proportions, eschewing traditional skirts to emphasize androgyny.[4] Underneath, the ensemble includes a white dress shirt, sometimes with ruffled organza details, paired with a bow tie or cummerbund to complete the formal tuxedo aesthetic.[12] This combination of elements, debuted in Yves Saint Laurent's Autumn-Winter 1966 collection, marked a deliberate fusion of menswear tailoring with subtle feminine adjustments.[1]Adaptations Over Time
Following its debut in the Autumn-Winter 1966 collection, Yves Saint Laurent reinterpreted Le Smoking seasonally as a core element of his oeuvre, adapting the silhouette to evolving silhouettes while preserving its androgynous essence; for instance, variations incorporated satin lapels, tapered trousers, and cummerbunds tailored to accentuate the female waist, distinguishing it from menswear precedents.[1] By the 1970s, the design permeated ready-to-wear lines, influencing broader adoption in women's professional wardrobes through pantsuit iterations that emphasized structured shoulders and slim fits, aligning with rising female workforce participation.[13][3] In the 1980s and 1990s, adaptations shifted toward power dressing, with designers like Claude Montana and Thierry Mugler expanding Le Smoking's framework into broader-shouldered, wool-based suits for corporate environments, often in navy or charcoal hues rather than strict black velvet.[6] Tom Ford, during his tenure at Yves Saint Laurent from 1999 to 2004, revived the tuxedo with sensual, low-cut variations in silk and leather, emphasizing eroticism over austerity and boosting sales through celebrity endorsements.[3] The 2010s saw further evolution under Hedi Slimane at Saint Laurent, who in 2014 introduced a slimmer, rock-inflected version with cropped jackets and skinny trousers, reflecting streetwear influences and worn by figures like Cara Delevingne.[14][3] Contemporary reinterpretations by designers such as Alessandro Michele at Gucci (2016–2022) and Jean Paul Gaultier in haute couture collections have diversified fabrics to include glitter, sheer overlays, and non-black palettes like emerald or metallic tones, pushing toward gender-fluid expressions while maintaining the peaked lapel and bow tie motifs.[15][16][17] These updates, evidenced in runway shows and sales data from brands like Saint Laurent reporting annual tuxedo revenue exceeding €50 million by 2020, underscore Le Smoking's transition from evening formalwear to versatile, empowering attire across contexts.[3]Debut and Reception
1966 Launch
Yves Saint Laurent debuted Le Smoking, the first women's tuxedo suit, as part of his Autumn-Winter 1966 haute couture collection presented in Paris.[1] [2] The garment adapted the traditional men's tuxedo—originally designed for smoking rooms to shield clothing from cigar odors—for the female silhouette, featuring a tailored black wool jacket with satin lapels, matching trousers, and often a sheer blouse.[1] [17] This launch coincided with the opening of Saint Laurent's Rive Gauche ready-to-wear boutique on Paris's Left Bank, marking a shift toward accessible fashion while retaining couture prestige.[18] The collection, influenced by pop art aesthetics, showcased models striding the runway in the androgynous ensemble, challenging mid-1960s gender norms in attire.[2] Saint Laurent's innovation emphasized empowerment through masculine tailoring, with the suit's cummerbund cinched to accentuate the waist, blending formality with femininity.[3] Initial presentations highlighted the tuxedo's versatility for evening wear, positioning it as a bold alternative to gowns.[13]Initial Public and Critical Responses
Le Smoking debuted as part of Yves Saint Laurent's Autumn-Winter 1966 haute couture collection, presented in Paris in August 1966 as an element of the "Pop Art" theme. [1] [13] The design, featuring a tailored black jacket with satin lapels, matching trousers, and accessories like a ruffled blouse and bow tie, immediately sparked controversy by appropriating menswear elements for women's evening attire. [13] Public reaction was marked by shock and exclusion, with women in Le Smoking frequently denied entry to formal venues enforcing dress codes against trousers. [19] Instances included refusals at a Normandy casino and New York's Plaza Hotel, reflecting entrenched 1960s norms that deemed such outfits unsuitable for women in social settings. [13] Yves Saint Laurent himself recounted taking singer Françoise Hardy to the Paris Opera in the suit, where spectators "screamed and hollered," underscoring the visceral outrage it provoked. [9] Critical responses from fashion editors and commentators were largely negative, viewing the tuxedo as a disruptive challenge to feminine presentation. [20] Influential critics, such as New York Times journalist Gloria Emerson, dismissed it as an "insult to women," while traditional outlets rejected its blurring of gender lines in clothing. [4] Haute couture clientele proved resistant, with only one Le Smoking sold initially, indicating its perception as too radical for the era's conservative tastes. [1] This snubbing by elite buyers highlighted a broader divide, as the garment's androgynous assertion clashed with expectations of evening femininity centered on skirts and gowns. [3]