Le Smoking Is the Symbol of the Awakening of Feminist Consciousness - Essay Sample

Part1: Introduce the career of YSL which is the inventor of Le smoking; introduce the status of females during those years.

Yves Saint Laurent is an influential European designer. He was born in the month of August 1, 1936, in Algeria. The artist has impacted the world of fashion since the year 1960 to date. His passion for design started while he was still a teenager. His passion having been catalyzed by his late early childhood encounters Yves Saint Laurent found his solace in the design world. His school mates had bullied him for appearing to be gay. His escape became his passion. In his early years, he was known to make complicated paper dolls and would often design his mothers and sister dresses. At the age of seventeen, his mother took Yves to Paris. She had arranged an interview for him with Michael de Brunoff, the then editor of the Vogue Magazine. De Brunoff introduced Yves Saint Laurent to designer known as Christian Dior who was a sensation in the design industry. Under the mentorship of Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent started to gain more popularity. In the year 1960, Yves had to travel back to his country to contest for his country's freedom. Securing an exemption based on health complaints Yves Saint Laurent went back to Paris. However, his mentor Christian Dior had breached their agreed job contract. The news shattered the then upcoming designer. However, after successfully suing his mentor, he managed to be compensated with forty-eight thousand dollars. The forty-eight dollars gave Yves Saint Laurent an opportunity to start over. He collaborated with Pierre Berge, his girlfriend and together they decided to start a fashion house. At the time, there was the desire for new fresh designs due to the rise of the pop culture. The increase of the pop culture worked to his advantage. He named him fashion line the Saint Laurent Designs after himself. When Yves secured the top most envied position in the fashion world, it was not a surprise that models and actresses were quick to embrace his plans. He traded blazers and smoking jackets and presented the Pea Coat clothing to the runway. The sheer blouse and jumpsuit were his signature pieces. Yves Saint Laurent started his fashion brand in 1966. His name was famously known for the design of women tuxedos. In the year 1983 Yves Saint Laurent had his first exhibition by the side of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In the year 1986 Yves and Berge broke up. However, their separation did not affect the way they ran the company. After their separation, Yves Saint Laurent battled addictions to alcohol and cocaine. The Saint Laurent design fans complained that his outfits had become stale and unappealing. In the year 1990, two men noticed Yves Saint Laurent designs and rebranded his clothes. By this time Yves had managed to curb his alcohol and cocaine addictions. However ten years later, Yves Saint Laurent had gotten tired of the business, and he and Berge decided to sell the company. He did the latter by participating in a show that was hosted in Marrakech in January 2002 and declaring that he had officially retired from the fashion design world. Yves Saint Laurent believed that Fashion dies, but the style always remained.

In the 1960's the American women were exempted in many ways both in the family life and at the work place. They were expected to marry in their early 20's, start a family and devote most of their lives to home making. Women were their husband's and children's keepers. Therefore, they played the role of doing a work load of housekeeping and babysitting. They spent an average of forty to fifty hours a week doing house chores. Through the master and head laws, men had the right to treat women as their subjects. Women had no legal right to earnings that were made by their husbands, but the husbands had a right to control their wives' property. Women were not allowed to divorce their husbands. In case a divorce was paramount the women had to prove their spouses wrong doing for their divorce to be considered. Working women were limited in their professions and they could either become a nurse, a tutor or a secretary. The college educated house wives expressed their frustration through Betty Friedan's book, The Feminine Mystique, and claimed that they felt trapped and unfulfilled. Women felt that they had lost their personalities. Their roles had been demeaned to those of servers of food and just a person that makes a bed, a person who only does what they are told to do and nothing else.

Part2: Compare the different female historical status between before Le smoking appeared and after Le smoking appeared.

Before Le smoking appeared American women were exempted in many ways both in the family life and at the work place. They were expected to marry in their early 20's, start a family and devote most of their lives to home making. Women were their husband's and children's keepers. Therefore, they played the role of doing a work load of housekeeping and babysitting. They spent an average of forty to fifty hours a week doing house chores. Through the master and head laws, men had the right to treat women as their subjects. Women had no legal right to earnings that were made by their husbands, but the husbands had a right to control their wives' property. Women were not allowed to divorce their husbands. In case a divorce was paramount the women had to prove their spouses wrong doing for their divorce to be considered. Working women were limited in their professions and they could either become a nurse, a tutor or a secretary. The college educated house wives expressed their frustration through Betty Friedan's book, The Feminine Mystique, and claimed that they felt trapped and unfulfilled. Women felt that they had lost their personalities. Their roles had been demeaned to those of servers of food and just a person that makes a bed, a person who only does what they are told to do and nothing else.

When Yves introduced Le smoking, the tuxedo suit designed for ladies, the people against it asked why women would dare to take up something that was so elegantly masculine and make it their own. The critics claimed that the suit showed that the women had become irrelevant, daring and had aligned themselves with the burgeoning feminist politics. The women countered this criticism by demanding that if the men could wear why couldn't they? The Le smoking suit portrayed the woman as a serious lady. Women looked like they were just as dangerous and as competitive as the men. They also believed that they deserved powerful positions like the men. The Le smoking suit put women in a position of commanding power as they were made to take away the stereotypical way of dressing women to arise sexual appeal and emphasized on the needed hit of seriousness. The suit also changed the way women looked at themselves. They claimed that their loss of personality had been conquered by the Yves Saint Laurent suit that made them feel different as women.

Women underwent broad cultural changes after the introduction of the Le smoking. Many more women were joining regular jobs. As a result of them engaging in paid labor, women began noticing inequalities and discriminations regarding some salaries they were being paid. They were against sexual harassment and were dissatisfied with sick pay. Women started using contraceptives when the control pill was approved. The approval of the control pill enabled women to free themselves from unwanted pregnancies, and they had more freedom to make choices that concerned their personal lives. Women revolutionized themselves, and soon Americans came to accept the elementary objectives of the sixties feminist that advocated for the end of the sexual pestering and division of house work and child nurturing. Women were now more than ever triggered to fight for their equality when they realized that although the equal pay legislation had been passed in the year 1963, their salaries were sixty percent what their male counterparts were earning. They formed a national organization for women and complained at the Miss America Competition in Atlantic Country in a conflict that show was a chauvinist. Women, activist movements were satisfactory, and young women had the opportunity to access similar careers to those of men and also to receive equal compensation. Conservative Republicans also started recruiting female candidates and encouraged them to match the men's ambitiousness.

Part3: illustrate some people or friends of YSL who had a far-reaching impact on the Invention of Le smoking, for example, Helmut Newton, Catherine Deneuve, Nan Kempner, Bianca Jagger and the representative personage "Loulou De La Falaise. Also, analyze and illustrate the influence of the Le smoking to the modern society and designers, or introduce the continuation of a brand which is Le smoking.

Helmut Newton was a photographer in the year 1975. He styled le smoking with slicked back hair and a masculine posture which helped spread Saint Laurent's brand and ensured that its iconic images satisfied the client's imaginations. Catherine Deneuve impacted Saint Laurent creation through her film career. Through the movie Belle de Jour, Yves Saint Laurent and Catherine Deneuve began a partnership. Saint Laurent had managed to convince Catherine not to wear very short skirts in her moves at a time while mini-skirts were quite the trend. Yves worked for hand in hand with Catherine's Director and made sure that the costume to be sown for the character was well understood. The style worn by Catherine in Belle de Jour has survived through the generations. Nan Kempner made Yves creation famous when she has famously turned away from Le Coste Basque in New York while wearing the Yves Saint Tuxedo suit. She, with a no-nonsense look, removed the bottom half of the suit and wore the jacket as a thigh skimming dress instead. Bianca Jagger was a client of Yves. She met him first at his office with the aim of asking him to help design her wedding dress. Bianca Jagger got a huge liking for how fitting Yves clothes were.

Loulou de la Falaise is a French icon that helped Yves disseminates le smoking creation. She is known to have accessorized in Yves Saint Laurent couture and ready-to-wear costumes for almost three decades. Loulou de la Falaise is Saint Laurent's best model. However, despite being the best model, she did not dress up to please the paparazzi. She dressed up in Le smoking suits to feel good about herself and mainly to impress Yves Saint Laurent. Presently Le smoking has been portrayed as a formal wear due to the crop of confidence it pulls off. Angelina Jolie wore a slim-cut Saint Laurent smoking at the 2017 Baftas. Le smoking has affected women from back in the days to present. Powerful women like Hillary Clinton, Rachida Dati, Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Watson and Kim Kardashian are modern day ambassadors of Le smoking. Victoria Beckham, for example, has continued to play with the Le smoking power jacket motif. The clothes have proved that they can be worn forever once bought.

Part4: conclude why Le smoking is the symbol of feminism

Women underwent broad cultural changes after the introduction of the Le smoking. Many more women were joining regular jobs. As a result of them engaging in paid labor, women began noticing inequalities and discriminations regarding some salaries they were being paid. They were against sexual harassment and were dissatisfied with sick pay. Women started using contraceptives when the control pill was approved. The approval of the control pill enabled women to free themselves from unwanted pregnancies, and they had more freedom to make choices that concerned their personal lives. Women revolut...