The Smoking Jacket Continues to Challenge Gendered Styles
From Yves Saint Laurent to Alessandro Michele, see how these designers are pushing the boundaries of femininity with Le Smoking.
The French girl saunters cooly down the streets of Paris in Yves Saint Laurent’s structured Le Smoking jacket, cigarette aptly in hand. The iconic take on menswear for women first entered the world of fashion in 1966, when Saint Laurent pushed the boundaries of femininity. Before Le Smoking, fashion centered on a strict elegance, most notably through the New Look by Christian Dior—Saint Laurent’s mentor—which centered a cinched waist and a long, full skirt. In a 1976 editorial featuring a Saint Laurent suit, L’OFFICIEL reported that ‘[Le Smoking] is tailored as a male jacket, but has a je ne sais quoi that makes it extremely feminine.’ This balance between the ease of masculine fashion and the chic fit of womenswear is what made the piece so revolutionary.
When a garment reaches icon status, it is continually reimagined by contemporary designers, taking on new meaning in every iteration. Saint Laurent’s current creative director, Anthony Vaccarello, has made Le Smoking a centerpiece of his collections since joining the house in 2016. Gucci’s Alessandro Michele played with the increasing idea of gender fluidity in his most recent ready-to-wear collection, showing off loosely tailored suiting that represented the universality of Le Smoking. American designer Thom Browne has made suiting a trademark of his collections, often showing classic grey wool suits with unique cuts and distinctive details, his Fall/Winter 2022 show being no exception. The advent of Le Smoking was one of those rare and exciting moments in which fashion felt truly new, and the design represented the power of fashion as a marker of social change. In 2022, Le Smoking continues to reflect this change by challenging traditional expectations and cementing its position as the ultimate not just in fashion, but in style itself.
