'Le smoking' in 1994
© AFP/File Gerard JulienPARIS (AFP) - Now 'le smoking', as it is known here, has become a symbol of the legendary designer and is featured in its many variations through the decades in a new exhibition in Paris.
'Smoking Forever' opens on Wednesday midway through Paris fashion week, unveiling next spring-summer's ready-to-wear collections, which kicked off on Sunday. Yves Saint Laurent's show is on October 9.
Sequinned, cropped, belted, double-breasted, long, mini-dress-like, caped, draped, shaped and uncollared but always black, the smoking was a perennial favourite of Saint Laurent with a new design practically every year.
He is famous for calling black a "refuge" and has described the smoking as "essential" because it makes a woman feel "constantly fashionable". "It's an item of clothing of style and not of fashion. Fashions pass, style is eternal," he has said.
The first version of the smoking appeared on the catwalk in summer 1966 during his 'Pop Art' autumn-winter haute couture collection -- a jacket in black grain de poudre with four button-down pockets and trousers.
That year also saw the opening of the first Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche ready-to-wear boutique.
'Le smoking' in 1967
© AFP/File"By appropriating male apparel and enabling women to wear it, Saint Laurent transferred the attributes of power from one sex to the other," Pierre Berge, former chairman of the YSL couture house, wrote in the catalogue to the exhibition.
An alternative to the traditional 'little black dress' or evening gown, the French designer took the smoking and in 1968 teamed it with Bermuda shorts. In the mid-70s it became a jumpsuit, while in 1996, it had adopted a belted safari jacket look.
About 50 designs will be on display at the YSL premises at 5 avenue Marceau standing as if pieces on a massive black-and-white chess board where the queen is the most powerful player.
"It is a well-known fact that Chanel gave women their freedom; years later Saint Laurent brought them power," writes Berge.
Long-time muse French actress Catherine Deneuve appears arm-in-arm with Saint Laurent, both naturally dressed in a smoking, on the poster for the exhibition at the Pierre Berge-Yves Saint Laurent foundation.
The exhibition runs from October 5 until April 23, open Tuesday to Sunday from 11:00 am until 6:00 pm.
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