Le Smoking has the pleasing quality of looking entirely assured while making other people’s assumptions uncomfortable. Lapels, trousers, evening formality: the ingredients were familiar. Their arrangement on a woman’s body changed the conversation. I admire a garment that can accomplish so much while remaining useful to the person wearing it.
The Yves Saint Laurent museum dates the first version to 1966 and records its difficult couture reception, followed by success in ready-to-wear. That is a much better story than instant universal acclaim. Saint Laurent had made something whose audience was not quite where convention expected it to be. The Dior Bar jacket offers a fascinating comparison in silhouette and intent.
In Paris, the museum preserves the history; a tailor makes the present-tense questions visible. Shoulder, sleeve, trouser length. An argument about freedom still has to fit. The safari jacket carries some of the same appetite for borrowed codes into daylight.