Friday, May 15, 2009

The History of the Pantsuit

As I begin to prepare for my next project, "The Myth of the Pantsuit", I thought I'd share what little I've found out about the history of the pantsuit.
It seems that the pantsuit as we know it, didn't come into being until the mid 1960's.
Women didn't really even wear pants until the 1920's, and that wasn't for fashion reasons, but work reasons.

Coco Channel, designed a rather masculine-styled pantsuit in 1933.


(Marlene Dietrich modeling)

Actresses like Katherine Hepburn made wearing men's suits fashionble among some women. But these suits were a little " too, too" for most.



French designer, André Courrèges, created a women's safari-styled pantsuit in 1965.
But pantsuits as we know them, did not come into being until 1966, when designer Yves Saint-Laurent introduced his awesome "Le Smoking" pantsuit.


Don't you just Le love it?

" Le Smoking tuxedo suit for women" set the standard for pantsuits today.
It grabbed the attention of the fashion industry, and offered a powerful alternative for women in the business world.


Le Smoking Suit, 1975

So, as I was saying...
The first pantsuits were made of wood...



( to be continued...)

6 comments:

Charlene said...

And, of course, who can forget Annie Hall?

Loving learning the history of the pantsuit. (Hmm...the first were made of wood? I would have flunked that one on a pop quiz).

Well, anyway, HCA members are all for it!

Flying Mermaid said...

When I was little I was mad for those women -- Kate and Marlene -- in those mens suits. Should have been a clue, I reckon.

Ah, to bring back the wooden pant suit! (Charlene, you're so silly!)

Paintress Gretchen said...

Yes, the wooden pantsuit never really took off because it felt scratchy.

Charlene said...

Some studies show the very very first pantsuits were made of stone. But, they were too heavy...

Flying Mermaid said...

That's the ticket, Charlene!

Anonymous said...

Loving learning the history of the pantsuit.

___________________

Vince

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