For
many years women were not allowed to wear pant suits, or any type of trousers,
as they were seen to be a masculine piece of clothing. Christians also argued
that wearing pants was prohibited by the Bible, which is a completely
ridiculous statement, of course. Pant suits are comfortable and can be very
sexy.
There
seems to be some confusion as to when they actually appeared for the first
time, and who really designed the first slack suits. This has often been
attributed to Yves Saint Laurent,
who designed the Le Smokingtuxedo suit for women in 1966. Others
will say that it was the great Mademoiselle Coco Chanel who actually designed
the first suit for women! She revolutionised the fashion industry with the
"little black dress" and used more masculine fabrics in
many of her designs.
Chanel’s
designs were focused on what she would want to wear, not what was acceptable in
the day. Coco Chanel promoted the wearing
of pants for women, a fashion which was quickly picked up by stars like
Marlene Dietrich, after she was spotted wearing pants on a trip to Italy. Chanel
said trousers made it easier for her to climb in and out of the gondolas.
Coco
Chanel was way ahead of the times when it came to women’s fashion, and believed
that women should be able to dress comfortably. Her motto was “Luxury
must be comfortable, otherwise it is not luxury.” She followed through on this idea in the wardrobes that she created,
which were sought after by the rich and famous women of the day. She borrowed
ideas from the male attire, but left out the harsh tailoring out and hence the
articles of clothing she designed had flowing lines and were the epitome of
elegance.
Designers
to whom the pant suit is accredited are:
Paul Poiret -
introduced a corduroy suit of slacks and
a jacket for women in 1925, when
the fashion of menswear, monocles and canes was adopted by a small number of
women, including actress Katherine Hepburn. This was largely ignored as it was
seen to be too masculine
Coco
Channel – designed
a very masculine-looking suit of trousers
and a jacket for women, in 1933,
which was worn by Marlene Dietrich
André
Courrèges
– although more renowned for designing the mini-dress, also created a women’s safari-styled outfit consisting of
pants and a jacket in 1964.Most people see this as the real
beginning of slack suits for women.
Yves
Saint Laurent –designed the Le
Smoking tuxedo suit for women in1966,
and began the androgynous fashion of dressing, which many women loved because
it was not masculine but gave then all the freedom of masculine clothing.
No
matter to whom the original pant suit is accredited, one thing is for certain,
it took the originality and innovative designing of Yves Saint Laurent to make
this luxurious evening suit for women a fashion trend which was accepted by all.
Other design houses took notice of this, because it seemed that someone had at
last come up with a viable alternative aimed at the businesswoman. Women’s
tuxedos are still very popular today.
