A Fashion Icon Dies,His Unusual Legacy Lingers

Yves St. Laurent died on the weekend. For whatever else he’s to be remembered for, his biggest accomplishment was probably selling the public on the idea of women wearing pants, which was first pitched by Coco Chanel, but took YSL to make fly.

It could be argued that women in the workplace were never taken seriously until they started showing up in pants in the ’60s. Slowly and surely the gender roles have faded and shifted over the years, largely because hemlines became mostly non-existent for a while. (Then came Ally McBeal and the ’90s, eh?)

With YSL’s death, a revisiting of his life will occur, and new schools of thought will examine his place, his fashion revolution’s place, in the yet-still-changing new world order of men and women.

Without the pantsuit, where would Hillary Clinton be? At home, baking cookies? Who knows. The pantsuit changed everything for women. It spoke of power, it conveyed femininity while not conveying too much of it. Suddenly women could sit in a meeting and have the focus be on them without having to worry about the leech in the corner who’s staring at her skirted legs or focusing on the sweater-vest outline of her boobs.

It’s strange, that a piece of clothing should be so responsible for a change in the social tide, but it’s not the first time it’s happened. Three pieces of clothing, I think, pretty much revolutionized society: The first pair of blue jeans, patented in the 1870s; Marlon Brando getting noticed for wearing a t-shirt in The Wild One, unleashing the fad of wearing a t-shirt as an actual shirt, a fashion item on its own, and not just an under-garment; and that of YSL and Chanel foisting the idea of pants-suited women taking over the workforce.

In a world filled with images, it’s visionaries like Yves St. Laurent who help shift our worldviews. From the skirted June Cleaver in the ’50s to the panted Elizabeth Taylor in the ’60s, no roles have changed quicker or with greater repercussion than that of the post-war woman in America, and YSL will always be remembered for playing a strange yet pivotal role in the shaping of the modern femme.

4 thoughts on “A Fashion Icon Dies,His Unusual Legacy Lingers

  1. Brian

    Marlene Dietrich and Katherine Hepburn were wearing trousers back in the 30s. Looking DAMN fine in them too. I recall some interview with Katherine Hepburn when some famous American interviewer asked her did she have ANY skirts? Ms Hepburn’s reply (who was heartily sick of the implication she was less feminine) “I do have ONE skirt Ms. (whoever), I’ll wear it to your funeral”

    As for Mrs. Clinton, I hope she doesn’t feel she can only be taken seriously when she’s wearing pant suits. Otherwise we haven’t really come all that far.

  2. Scribe Called Steff

    Oh, totally, I know. Hell, there are images of women wearing pants in the 1800s, too, so it’s not like it was a new idea… but he SOLD it to the masses, and it became the norm rather than oh-so-very exceptional with women like Dietrich and Hepburn… besides, Dietrich was always considered androgynous or even lesbian, way way back in the day, versus someone like Taylor who’s the attainable next-door-beauty kind of woman. Know what I mean?

  3. Scribe Called Steff

    And, yeah, I often wonder if Clinton thinks she can only be taken seriously in pants. Which is really lame, if so. But if she’s just more comfortable in them, then who are we to comment?

    Margaret Thatcher wore skirts and still majored in kickin’ ass and takin’ names, no?

  4. Brian

    If you mean Mags was successful, then yes she was. There is however a special hell reserved for her though.
    Miners strike, Steel mills closures, all manufacturing workers tossed onto the dole queue and with no help to re-skill. Quite a lot of families didn’t survive that. See U2’s Red Hill Mining Town. (crap video mind, which is why they didn’t release it for 20 years!) Poll Tax, Northern Ireland: hunger Strikes, Shoot to kill policy, collusion with unionist paramilitaries. Her economic policies came home to roost with Black Monday. Not to mention her support for the Apartheid regime in South Africa.
    Her government I believe also introduced fees for third level in the UK. If not her then John Major.

    So an ‘Iron Lady’ in a skirt? Definitely. Hellbound all the same tho.

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