Pantsuit

Yves Saint Laurent|Yves Saint Laurent

spring/summer 1970 · (a) wool, wood; (b) wool · Costume Institute

By 1970, variable skirt lengths had only engendered the impatience of women buying couture and ready-to-wear clothing. Pants provided a viable alternative and surcease from further slides of skirts up and down the leg. Saint Laurent was the couturier most ready to offer pants, having systematically presented them, first as part of his smoking ensembles, since the mid-1960s. In the 1970s, Saint Laurent would explore Chinese, Russian, and Gypsy pretexts for pants, establishing an authoritative iconography of women empowered in pants.

Artist

Yves Saint Laurent|Yves Saint Laurent

Date

spring/summer 1970

Medium

(a) wool, wood; (b) wool

Culture

French

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Gift of Mireille Levy, 1984