Throwback: A history of the pantsuit, from the 1900s until today
For some, the 2016 election was about much more than politics. It also brought to the forefront that even fashion (yes, even clothes) can present a significance that words can't.
“Clothes increasingly are becoming a frontier for political activism,” confirmed Fashion Institute of Technology curator Emma McClendon to Yahoo Lifestyle. "We’re all becoming more aware of the power dynamics inherent in clothing.”
Of the sartorial moments that were grander than designer names and their price tags included Melania Trump's controversial pussybow shirt that appeared right after Trump's leaked Access Hollywood tapes and the unification behind the color white. If you recall, democratic congresswomen made headlines by arriving to President Trump's first Congress address in 2017 in a sea of white in a nod to the suffragette movement.
Of course, amongst the other powerful statements made at the last presidential election include the pantsuit, courtesy of Hillary Clinton. In honor of Women's History Month, we're revisiting the history of the style and how it's become a uniform for groundbreaking and powerful women in the public sphere. For those that don't know the history of the pantsuit, the style has become synonymous for fearless, rebellious women.
"[Pantsuits] hid [a woman's] femininity—and by that I mean their femaleness—because it is a serious liability," said Marjorie Jolles, a women's studies professor to Vice. Tailored jackets and trousers had long been a fashion standard for European men, but for women in the early 1900s, pants were illegal.
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In the 1870s, French actress Sarah Bernhardt caused quite the scandal when she dressed in the style as one of her many ways to "blur gender roles." But the style still didn't pick up until the early 1900s when women adopted pants for everyday activities. In 1914, Chanel designed her first suit.
World War One was a watershed not just for women, many of whom were called into the workforce, but for the fashion world as well. Levi's creation of Lady Levi's epitomized this.
“In addition to referencing WWI, which ended in 1918 when Freedom-Alls were introduced, the name also implied liberation in women’s clothing, offering a suit women could wear to enjoy popular new outdoor activities, like hiking or driving, or to do housework,” said Tracey Pankek Levi Strauss & Co. historian to Yahoo Lifestyle. The company's introduction of "hiking togs" in the '20s (matching khakis and tops) confirmed the popularity of a new style as movie stars like Marlene Dietrich and Katherine Hepburn brought the looks to the big screen.
Yet, it was still controversial. "Only the most unconventional designer would offer a straightforward pantsuit, and only a fearless woman would wear it," explained the Museum of Modern Art about the trend in the 1930s, confirmed Racked.
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The 1960s catalyzed a new wave of feminism and consequently, the popularization of the groundbreaking style. Fashion powerhouses (most notably Yves Saint Laurent) jumped on the trend with the famed "Le Smoking tuxedo" suit in 1966.
“It wasn’t until the experimental ’60s and ’70s that we see a watershed moment, a real breaking down, in terms of fashion chronology, of women’s fashion," said McClendon to Yahoo Lifestyle.
"Yves Saint Laurent deserves a fair amount of credit for continuing to pave the way for women wearing pants for all occasions, with tuxedos for formal wear alongside gowns and women in safari suits. He was revolutionary in that he didn’t feminize pants at all. He was significant because he was literally putting women in menswear, presenting different archetypes of masculinity and femininity," she continued.
The "Pantsuit Rebellion of 1993" urged a new era in Washington, when Barbara Mikulski staged a protest to allow women working on the Senate floor to wear pants.
RELATED: Show your support for Women's History Month
"It was a snowy day, and I found out more bad weather was coming,' Mikulski said at the time. "I just really wanted to be comfortable. I'm most comfortable wearing slacks. Well, for a woman to come on the floor of the Senate in trousers was viewed as a seismographic event," she recalled according to Vice.
The fashion continues to symbolize how something as simple as a pair of pants can change the course of history. So in 2016, when voters were casting their ballots, the pantsuit became a go-to uniform for Hillary Clinton supporters as they made their way to the polls. It's even something Clinton jokingly refers to as her "sisterhood of the traveling pantsuit."
