The best suit that you ever had

Y ves Saint Laurent used to said: For a dinner jacket is indispensable, it makes forever elegant. The tuxedo is style, not Fashion comes and goes, style lasts for woman her fashion. ever. a feel

Since his arrival to Paris, at the age of 17, he showed his enormous talent. Fashion lover since he was a child, he came to the French capital city with his desings under his arm, wich have been presented to Michel de Brunhoff, director of Parisian version of the magazine Vogue. This last one hadnt no doubt about the publication of this sketchs. Shortly after, he met Christian Dior, with whom started to work under his directions in 1954. He became in his right hand, until the death of the French designer in 1957. After that unlucky event, he started to be the Creative Director of the company. This talented Algerian-French designer has had the extraordinary ability, as Lucien Franois has writen, to give an aristocratic allure to the fads of this time. So, in addition to the bomber jacket (1960) and the sahariana jacket (1968), he bought out the dinner jacket for ladies, turning it into a milestone of 20 th century style. It was 1966 when Saint Laurent first showed off the female tuxedo. The first brave enought to wear it were Betty Catroux, a French icon of chic androgynous style and the stylists muse, and Nancy Kempner. A scandal ensued: Catroux was booed when she appeared at the Opera in a tux. Nancy Kempner was denied entry to the New York restaurant Cte Basque. Faced with what it believed to be a provocation, the media spoke of a new George Sand style. But despite these hiccups, the dinner jacket, a classic of male elegance of the 20 th century, quickly entered the hearts, not to mention the wardrobes, of thousand of women, including Catherine Deneuve, who says: the advantage of the tux is that it has both male and female traits. After just a few months LOfficiel decreed: evening trousers are the order of the day; Vogue Paris wrote: the women most in the limelight in Paris and in New York have now adopted the female dinner jacket.

The tuxedo had previously made a muted and sporadic appearance in the wardrobes of non.conformist intellectuals and stars with ambivalent images, like Colette or Marlene Dietrich, who commissioned her famous texedos drom Hollywood couturiers Watson & Son. Its loved by Catherine Deneuve, Liza Minelli, Lou Lou de la Falaise, Lauren Bacall and Bianca Jagger. But it was thanks to Yves Saint Laurent that the female dinner jacket became a classic. It has been re-interpreted on a regular basis by a large number of designers. Today the Pierre Berg/Yves Saint Laurent foundation has dedicated an exhibition called Smoking forever to the tuxedo and its infinite reincarnations. All the women are deeply grateful with YSL, who gave us an eternal suit, chic, sexy and forever classic.