Ensemble

Yves Saint Laurent|Yves Saint Laurent

fall/winter 2000–2001 · a,b) wool, silk · Costume Institute

Mrs. Kempner's reliance on the suit as a staple of her daytime wardrobe extended into evening, especially Yves Saint Laurent's tuxedo-inspired "Le Smoking." Although Saint Laurent's first smoking of 1965 was an almost literal transposition of the components of a man's tuxedo to a woman's body, he soon created versions with skirts, both short and long, and as long coatdresses and jumpsuits. In this ensemble, Saint Laurent takes two recurring garment types of his oeuvre, the bolero jacket and the jumpsuit, and details them with the iconography of the tuxedo. When cut to caress the shape of a woman, traditional male forms are seductively freighted with a Helmut Newton-like androgyny.

Artist

Yves Saint Laurent|Yves Saint Laurent

Date

fall/winter 2000–2001

Medium

a,b) wool, silk

Culture

French

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Gift of Thomas L. Kempner, 2006