Le Smoking, 1966 — the suit that got women turned away
In 1966 a suit could get a woman turned away at the door. Yves Saint Laurent's Le Smoking was the first tuxedo cut for women, and restaurants refused entry to women wearing it. Trousers, at dinner, on a woman: scandalous. Nan Kempner famously took hers off at the door of a New York restaurant and walked in wearing the jacket as a dress. Pierre Bergé put it simply: Chanel gave women freedom. Saint Laurent gave them power.