Issue link: https://www.balharbourdigital.com/i/111120
PHOTOS BY DIMITRIOS KAMBOURIS/WIREIMAGE, BRUSLIN/CENTRAL PRESS/WIRE IMAGES, ��FONDATION PIERRE BERG�� ��� YVES SAINT LAURENT dungarees. By the time the GIs came home, Rosie the Riveter had slipped back into her girdle, hat and gloves. It took a cultural revolution to finally liberate women and get them into pants. By the mid-1970s, women were joining the managerial work force in record numbers and adopting the menswear look���but with a skirt. In 1966, Yves Saint Laurent had tested society���s rigid dress codes when he introduced his famous Le Smoking tuxedo. Women���s Wear Daily called it Saint Laurent���s ���elegant reign of terror.��� But women loved the freedom of the suit, particularly at black-tie galas. And in 1975, Armani came to the rescue of workingwomen, offering up a softer version of the cookie-cutter menswear-style suit by combining fluid fabrics with firm shoulder pads. At the time, Armani said that he was reacting to the masses of women who were breaking into the workplace. He felt they needed a stronger, more dignified image that adhered to the rules of men���s uniforms. The power suit was born. Donna Karan further smoothed out the wrinkles of dress codes by layering her famous bodysuit under draped jackets and pants. In the 1990s, minimalists such as Helmut Lang and, later, Slimane further streamlined the pantsuit, tightening the armholes of jackets and cutting skinny, sexy pants. It took a cultural revolution to finally liberate women and get them into pants. The image of Melanie Griffith strutting across the big screen in a black pantsuit with huge shoulder pads in the 1988 movie Working Girl remains a leitmotif of the breakthrough moment when pants became acceptable in the workplace. But the reality is that progress in the dresscode department has been slower in the power corridors of Wall Street and Washington. As Madeleine Albright once reminded me, it wasn���t until the 1990s that women were allowed to wear pants on the Senate floor. No matter how many glass ceilings they shatter, many powerful female CEOs and CFOs on Wall Street still feel they cannot risk their hard-earned status by fooling around with fashion. A while back my friend Alexandra Lebenthal, the president and CEO of Lebenthal & Co., told me a story about switching outfits between appointments because she couldn���t wear something frivolous to a meeting with the treasurer of a big bank. She changed into a pinstriped pantsuit because she couldn���t risk looking inappropriate. Hillary Clinton has changed all that with her signature, brightly colored Oscar de la Renta pantsuits, a beacon of confidence in any crowd of dark suits. They say women opt for pantsuits, and something more secure, when the economy tanks or politics get dicey. You could blame the current crop of pants on the looming European debt crisis or even stagnant unemployment, but as Raf Simons confirmed on his runway, the trend is really all about modern glamour. And Hollywood���s award season has proven him right, as celebrities such as Anne Hathaway and Emma Stone traded in overblown ball gowns for Saint Laurent���s stovepipe pants or Gucci���s emerald-green jacket and pants on the red carpet. Worn with a feminine silk blouse or sexy heels, the look is hardly masculine. Even Christian Dior would approve. BH 80 BAL HARBOUR Clockwise from top: Marlene Dietrich gave the masculine pantsuit a sexy edge; a drawing of an Yves Saint Laurent tuxedo from the 1989 haute couture collection; a Stella McCartney look from the Spring 2013 collection; Anne Hathaway embraces the trend.