woman's tailcoat

The Smoking for Women

The smoking by Yves Saint-Laurent

As early as the 1920s, actresses like Marlene Dietrich, known for her extravagant preference for trouser suits at the time, had men's smoking jackets tailored to fit them by bespoke tailors. However, the smoking remained a standard garment exclusively reserved for men until the 1960s.

In 1962, French actress Catherine Deneuve made headlines by publicly wearing a haute couture smoking suit adapted for women by French fashion designer Yves Saint-Laurent. Saint-Laurent introduced the smoking for women, which he called Le Smoking, into his ready-to-wear Rive Gauche collection for the 1966 season, and subsequently offered it in numerous variations. Saint-Laurent's women's smoking suit became a fashionable symbol of the second wave of feminism and the emancipation of women in the 1960s.

According to Barbara Vinken, Le Smoking is the most striking example of the incorporation of men's fashion into women's fashion, "where the sex appeal of the masculine is particularly evident in the feminine." To this day, the smoking for women can be found in the collections of designers.

Source: Wikipedia