TAILORING

Tailoring is the art of designing, cutting, fitting, and finishing clothes. The word tailor comes from the French tailler, to cut, and appears in the English language during the fourteenth century. In Latin, the word for tailor was sartor, meaning patcher or mender, hence the English "sartorial," or relating to the tailor, tailoring, or tailored clothing.

As a craft, tailoring dates back to the early Middle Ages, when tailors' guilds were established in major European towns. Tailoring had its beginnings in the trade of linen armorers, who skillfully fitted men with padded linen undergarments to protect their bodies against the chafing of chain mail and later plate armor. Men's clothing at the time consisted of a loosely fitted tunic and hose. In 1100 Henry I confirmed the royal rights and privileges to the Taylors of Oxford. In London, the Guild of Taylors and Linen Armorers were granted arms in 1299. They became a Company in 1466 and were incorporated into the company of Merchant Taylors in 1503.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, tailors were responsible for making a variety of outer garments includ- ing capes, cloaks, coats, doublets, and breeches. They gave shape to them by using coarse, stiff linen and canvas for interlining, horsehair cloth and even cardboard stiffened with whalebone for structural elements. Imperfect or asymmetrical body shapes could be evened out with wool or cotton padding. Luxury garments were often lined with satins or furs to keep their wearers warm. Tailors were the structural engineers for women's fashions and made whalebone stays or corsets until the nineteenth century. Women largely made relatively unshaped undergar- ments and shirts for men, women, and children. The nineteenth-century tailor added trousers, fancy waistcoats, and sporting clothing of all sorts to his repertoire. The tailor was particularly adept at working woolen fabrics, which he shaped and sculpted using steam and heavy irons. Menswear had long used wool as a staple fabric. In Britain wool connoted masculinity, sobriety, and patriotism but in the early nineteenth century, it became extremely fashionable, almost completely replacing the silks and velvets used in the previous century. At the same time, men began to wear trousers rather than breeches and by the 1820s, tightly cut trousers or pantaloons could be worn as evening wear. Though they no longer made corsets, women's sidesaddle riding habits and walking suits remained the province of the tailor and were cut and fashioned from the same fabrics as male garments.

THE LE SMOKING

in my previous research i have shown imagary and how the le smoking has inspired my collection.Saint Laurent debuted his le smoking in 1996, creating a wave of opinions, at first the media as well of editors that there controversial opinion in designing a modern tuxedo style suit for women, At this time women in suits where becoming more acceptable subject, I say accepting in a light sense. Saint Laurent started an androgynous revolution. Saint Laurent was one of the many designers that changed fashion and pushed the subject of androgynous fashion and feminism. He blurred the two genders and created beautiful strong designs that empowered women, and created a sexy appeal of the idea of women in a suit.

Through a delicate time of second wave feminism many women avoiding the discussion of fashion. Saint Laurent started a revolution of opening of designs that radicalized eveningwear, and create a transformation for women. Saint Laurent abled women to push through the thoughts of society, in what’s wrong and right, to rattled the cage of what’s acceptable. He made this transition of creating designs that are influenced by men, and designing his designs based on the thought though of men’s fashion but merging the beauty and sex appeal of women. Creating strong designs that caught the eye of society.

With his iconic début of the women’s le smoking, he continued to create the design till this day, incorporating more rebellious designs and still show casing his le smoking styled jackets with different elements.The way he mixes his iconic androgynous style with chic tailored jackets, and incorporates sheet shirts exposing the skin, creates a modern touch to sex appeal that continuously is on trend, and also is followed by many designers.