Yves Saint Laurent: Fashion Empowerment

As the opening of The Bowes Museum's celebratory retrospective exhibition of the beloved French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent draws closer I thought I would take a look at how this man shaped the modern woman's wardrobe via the changing face of fashion through female empowerment.

The adoption of male-dress by women has been regarded as being as significant as the casting-off of the corset. Today there is an ever prevalent focus on women and power, which is often synonymous with women and fashion.

____________________

For nearly three hundred and fifty years the corset has been women's primary means of support. A garment worn to hold and train the torso often for medical purposes was adopted for aesthetic reasons and subsequently featured as a fashion staple. 

It was used to conform the body into a fashionable silhouette. 

Women in corsets and gowns, 1870

In the nineteenth century it's purpose was to frame a woman's body, conforming it into a fashionable conical shape that would accentuate the bust and hips, whilst drawing in the waist and pulling back the shoulders. During this time the struggle for women's liberation, both mentally and physically, reached a peak and found representation in the form of fashion. The century saw an upheaval of reform in women's dress and the eventual casting-off of the corset was a highly significant and powerful move. Women were starting to openly discuss and criticise the corset, with newspapers and journals publishing letters and articles on the topic. 

It became known as the "corset controversy."

The fatal effects of tight-acing, a satirical cartoon from 1820

This open denunciation towards a fashion that required a tiny waist opened up a dialogue on the subject of female oppression, and advocates of the dress reform movement solidified sentiments on the deplorable impractical and restrictive nature of women's fashion at the time and pushed for more rational examples of clothing which would emancipate the contemporary woman and serve her changing role in society.

____________________

Yves Saint Laurent, and Chanel, were the first to apply this rationality associated with men's clothing, which was purposely designed for an active life, to women's clothing. By making use of the male dress code Saint Laurent's designs provided social empowerment for women whilst always retaining femininity.

"If Chanel gave women their freedom, 
it was Saint Laurent who empowered them."

- Pierre Bergé

 He took the trouser suit, the linens of the explorer, the sailor's pea coat, the agricultural worker's smock, the sportsman's blazer and shorts, the military man's trench coat and the grouse-moor stalker's knickerbockers, and gave them to women, giving them a modern wardrobe that reflected their changing role in society.

Le Smoking
Image: Helmut Newton, 1975
Outfit: Yves Saint Laurent, tuxedo suit, 1966

"He put women in trousers, trench coats, tuxedos, safari jackets and boiler suits. He studied the everyday garments of soldiers and workmen such as fishermen and firemen and turned them into a working wardrobe for women." 

- Joanna Hashagen, Curator of Fashion and Textiles at The Bowes Museum.

Saint Laurent wanted to dress women of all social classes.
He actively encouraged privileged women to 'buy-off-the-peg' just as less-priviledge women did, and by opening a prêt-a-porter boutique he forever emboldened the idea of ready-to-wear clothing.

"Yves Saint Laurent revolutionised fashion. 
He created an inspired, vivid universe that overturned conventions and conformity. 
With Saint Laurent, art became fashion - and fashion an art."

- Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, former YSL model.

Interestingly Donna Loveday, co-curator of Women Fashion Power which was held at the Design Museum in London earlier this year, talked about women being placed into a very dynamic role as they interacted with fashion, using it as a tool, rather than fashion binding and enslaving them.

"Women are the heroes, not the designers. Designers are looking at women. Women are the muses of fashion, and designers are responding to what they want and need, and particularly to changes in those wants and needs."

Yves Saint Laurent, 1964

In January 2002 Saint Laurent issued a retirement speech in which he noted:

"I am very proud that women around the world wear trouser suits, tuxedos, car coats and trench coats. I tell myself that I have created the modern woman's wardrobe, that I have taken part in the transformation of my times. Forgive me for drawing any vanity from this since I have for a long time believed that fashion's role was not simply to make women more beautiful but also to reassure them, give them confidence and allow them to assert themselves."

____________________

Yves Saint Laurent: Style Is Eternal is showing at The Bowes Museum from the 11th of July until the 25th of October 2015. Book your tickets now.

Image courtesy of The Bowes Museum

What will you be wearing to the exhibition? Let us know in the comments below.

- VM