It Took Approximately Four Decades for Pant Suits to Become Accepted in Society

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Bloomers were adopted by Amelia Jenks Bloomer, of New York, who worn them as a sign of rebellion in eighteen-fifty. They were also adopted by ladies in the first liberation groups, such as the suffragettes, and sporty women in the eighteen-sixties, but this craze did not catch on. Pant suits did not make their appearance about a century later, in the nineteen-sixties.

Although bloomers did not catch on, they were the inspiration for knickerbockers, which was the first concession made by the fashion industry, allowing women to participate in the bicycling that they were so fond of. Bicycling had previously been seen to be too unladylike for women, as they could not do it comfortably and in a ladylike fashion wearing dresses. Basically the ‘fashionistas’ had to cave in, as women were not going to give up cycling because it gave them a new sense of freedom and self-sufficiency. Due to this, knickerbockers remained a craze during the 1880s and 1890s.

In the nineteen-twenties, Coco Chanel started a fashion trend of wearing and designing clothing for women that was much more form-fitting. She loved dressing in masculine slacks or trousers made of twill herself. Some actresses that also took to this manly style are Katherine Hepburn and Marlene Dietrich. Mademoiselle Chanel, as she was referred to, even designed a very masculine trouser suit for women in 1933, but once again the mainstream did not take to pant suits as a fashion trend.

Women’s Fashion had definitely taken a huge step in being designed more for comfort and easy mobility in the twenties, though, and there was no turning back from that design revolution. Other designers started to become more daring in their designs, but still mainly kept to the very feminine, flowing designs. The little black dress or cocktail dress made famous by Coco Chanel is still a staple in every woman’s wardrobe today! Designers continued trying to introduce slacks, or pants for women over the years, but never really got very far.

The wearing of pants had been outlawed or at least sneered at, by Society, until World War II, when women had to work in the factories. This was very difficult to do in dresses, so trousers and overalls became de rigeuer for women to wear to work. This did not carry over to outside of the work, though.

Pant suits were re-introduced in the 1960s by André Courrègeswho was also responsible for the bikini, but they were only really made acceptable when Yves Saint Laurent designed his famous androgynous style Le Smoking tuxedo suit for women in 1966. Strangely enough, though, although trouser suits were accepted as informal wear, and even evening wear, for women in the late 60s, it took another decade or three until they were accepted as suitable attire to be worn in the work-place.