69134-ECF-T_259-356.qxd 8/23/2004 2:37 PM Page 259 T TAILORED SUIT The tailored suit is a garment for jackets and asserted equality between the sexes, suggest- women consisting of a jacket and a skirt, most often made ing the future of the tailored suit. Throughout the nine- of the same fabric. This name for the garment appeared teenth century, jackets matched with skirts or pants were in the fashion press around 1885. It owes its name to the worn as a kind of manifesto for the emancipation of particular manner in which it is made. Produced for women, and the costume thereby acquired a nefarious women by tailors who specialized in the making of men’s reputation. A few major female representatives of non- garments, it came to prominence at a time when the norm conformism and radicalism, such as George Sand, Flora was to differentiate men’s and women’s clothing by Tristan, Amelia Bloomer, and Emmeline Pankhurst, gave means of very specific techniques, forms, fabrics, colors, it an almost political character. and designs. The fashion spread almost everywhere in Around 1850, the walking suit appealed to an urban Europe and the United States thanks to the fame of the society fascinated by nature and open space. This outfit English company Redfern, whose style was made popu- made up of a jacket and a skirt that did not cover the an- lar by famous women, notably Queen Victoria. The kles, in the age of crinolines and corsets, was the last Parisian branch of the company, established on the rue avatar before the emergence and the success of the tai- de Rivoli at the end of the nineteenth century, con- lored suit. tributed to this success. The first suits that can truly be given the name were The emergence of this practical and functional gar- marked by the English influence that predominated in ment within a previously uncomfortable and ostentatious the late nineteenth century. British women, who female wardrobe shows the transformation in attitudes launched the craze for sports, travel, and tourism, were by Western society in the late nineteenth century. the first to adopt them. London society, where feminists Women in search of new garments better adapted to ways were influential, adopted the style, which incidentally of life connected to the industrial revolution and its re- corresponded to the sobriety admired by countries with sultant social transformations found the ideal garment in a Protestant culture. These first tailored suits had jack- the tailored suit. Since the suit fit the requirements of ets whose cut and details were borrowed from men’s such new forms of behavior as sport and travel, as well clothing, but their forms were adjusted to match the as the progress of hygiene, upper-class women played a curves of the corset. Skirts, particularly for traveling, were role in its adoption by the general population. The affir- slit or made with wide pleats in order to facilitate walk- mation of the suit by the urban middle class—primarily ing. Suits were worn most often with accessories influ- its emancipated women who took up professional ca- enced by men’s clothing, such as vests, shirts with wing reers—was the principal force behind its acceptance. collars, and men’s hats. From 1890 to 1914, under the The tailored suit had a veritable genealogy, however, influence of sports, their form became more flexible: and was not created ex nihilo. In particular, women’s rid- skirts flared, and less fitted jackets were freed from mas- ing costumes became fashionable in aristocratic circles in culine criteria and standards. The swift adoption of the the late seventeenth century. The costume of English tailored suit led to its presentation in a variety of forms, Amazons, made up of a fitted coat and a short skirt, in with short or long jackets, for summer or winter, and for favor in the late eighteenth century, was already close in holidays or urban life. Sober and practical, its use was style to what would become the tailored suit. Although nonetheless coded. The garment was worn during the dresses made up the bulk of women’s wardrobes, jackets day for occasions on which no convention was required and skirts, often matched, had been worn since the late (shopping, walking, visiting). sixteenth century by the urban working class. In the early twentieth century, the popularity of the This fashion spread in Enlightenment circles con- tailored suit tended to make it the uniform of the mid- cerned with egalitarianism in clothing. Many details bor- dle classes. Young women employed in new professions, rowed from men’s clothing—buttons, pockets, colors, such as office workers and elementary schoolteachers, fabrics, and sometimes even pants—went along with the adopted it as a professional uniform. 259 69134-ECF-T_259-356.qxd 8/23/2004 2:37 PM Page 260 TAILORED SUIT Solid and protective, like a coat, the tailored suit was and American fashions. The boldest of suits of the time mass produced, and its price thus made it accessible to a was no doubt the pants suit. After a timid appearance broad clientele. Department stores made it into a sale around 1890 for riding bicycles, in the form of culottes item. World War I accelerated changes. The tailored suit or bloomers, in the 1920s it was worn as broad trousers spread, becoming the war uniform of committed women with a navy blue jacket, exaggerating the masculine sil- wishing thereby to show their patriotism. The fashion houette that was fashionable in the jazz age. Softer, made press galvanized its use, thereby bringing together male of silk or printed cotton, the beach pajama was an addi- and female wardrobes as well as blurring class distinctions. tion to the summer wardrobe. On the ski slopes, elegant women displayed, with a degree of insolence, outfits of Haute Couture Becomes Interested jackets, tunics, and pants in mountain style, the most fash- Couturiers expressed mistrust toward the tailored suit. ionable made by Hermès. The use of this androgynous The sober and comfortable appearance of the garment outfit, however, remained confined to emancipated and broke with the tradition of the ostentatious elegance of eccentric circles, typical of California or French Riviera the Parisian houses. Similarly, the Anglo-Saxon influence lifestyles. Outfits made of flowing silk, dressier, decorated was treated by the French fashion press with a certain con- with geometric or exotic designs in rainbow colors, pro- tempt. The unquestionable superiority of London tailors vided a new and more feminine version of the suit. Sim- in men’s fashion was recognized, but there was firm op- ilarly, the evening suit, lamé, embroidered, and glittering, position to any intrusion on their part into the universe indicated an unbounded love of partying after years of of women’s clothing. The first couturiers to introduce tai- privation. Jean Patou was the most representative de- lored suits in their collections in the early twentieth cen- signer of the period; his style, influenced by American tury were Jacques Doucet, Jeanne Paquin, and Paul lifestyles, gave his suits, which had a masculine and sporty Poiret, all creators who contributed to radical transfor- spirit, a singularity that appealed to garçonnes and was mations in women’s fashion. Jackets had a Directoire cut, gradually more widely imitated. The strict, straight, al- a reminiscence of the eccentric elegance of the Incroy- most geometric appearance of these suits achieved so- ables. Coats, single-breasted and fitted, were high-waisted phistication through the use of very refined accessories. and usually made of fabric with broad stripes. However, The images of the American actress Louise Brooks wear- when Paul Poiret launched the fashion for pencil skirts ing his suits in films and photographs perpetrate the in- around 1911, after having liberated the torso from the fluence of the modernist style of Jean Patou. corset, he imposed a new constraint, contrasting with the functional use of the suit. The Tailored Suit Advances Under the influence of the younger generation, from By the 1930s, the tailored suit had definitively entered 1910 to 1925, the tailored suit became one of the favored the wardrobe of Western women, on many occasions re- garments of Parisian couture. Jeanne Lanvin, Gabrielle placing the dress as the garment of the bourgeoisie. Its Chanel, and Jean Patou were the most ardent advocates sober appearance was reassuring, and it attenuated social, of the new garment. The style of the Parisian suit set the cultural, and even national differences. However, the cost tone for the rest of the world throughout the twentieth of the garment made it hardly accessible to the working century. classes. It became the symbol of a degree of success for the middle class, worn by women at work as well as those Around 1910, the designs of Jeanne Lanvin blended who stayed at home. Often very subtle details, in terms the sporty informality of new men’s fashion with youth- of the quality of fabric, of cut, or of accessories, revealed ful and refined elegance. The jacket was now worn open, the economic and social status of the woman who was revealing a simple blouse embellished with lace inserts, wearing it. with a soft collar and no tie. Chanel, a beginner at the time, presented outfits made of soft jersey with an unfit- Because of the economic crisis of 1929 and its po- ted waist, large armholes, and short slit skirts facilitating litical consequences in Europe, the rise of conservative walking. This very avant-garde version, which she had and reactionary movements radically changed the image adopted from sports clothing, came together with the and the perception of the tailored suit.