While Saint Laurent recalled the time he took French pop star FranГ§oise Hardy to the Paris Opera dressed in one of his suits. 'The thing about a tuxedo is that it is virile and feminine at the same time,' purred Catherine Deneuve. 'I don't remember my first tuxedo вЂ“ but I know I have always worn one with nothing underneath,' Saint Laurent muse Betty Catroux told Suzy Menkes, then style editor of the International Herald Tribune, at the showвЂ™s opening. A manвЂ™s article of clothing thus became the symbol of female emancipation,вЂќ stated the press release for the 2005 exhibition Yves Saint Laurent Smoking Forever, which showcased the designerвЂ™s countless interpretations of the suit up to his retirement in 2002, from the dress version to the smoking jumpsuit and bolero. вЂњWhen Yves Saint LaurentвЂ™s smoking made its first appearance in an haute couture collection, it started a revolution. They just thought she looked wonderful.вЂќД®ven as late as 1966, the year in which Saint Laurent debuted le smoking in one of his couture shows, the concept of a woman in a tuxedo suit вЂ“ traditionally the Rolls-Royce of menвЂ™s black-tie wear - ruffled feathers. When a woman dresses as a man, nobody laughs. When a man dresses as a woman, the audience laughs. As it should it was so free.вЂќ The writer and raconteur Quentin Crisp, who was also interviewed for the documentary, said: вЂњWhereas sissy characters in movies were always a joke, thereвЂ™s no sin like being a woman. вЂњThey didnвЂ™t pretend it was anything but what it was she was doing it to turn on both the woman and the man, which appealed to everybody. вЂњWhatвЂ™s amazing I donвЂ™t think theyвЂ™ve done anything as delicious, sexually, as that since,вЂќ commented the American playwright, stage director and screenwriter Arthur Laurents in the 1995 documentary The Celluloid Closet. Worn with black patent leather heels and an unbuttoned white shirt, an untied dicky bow draped seductively at the collar, the actress looked archly feminine next to her partner Brad Pitt, who wore a traditional Valentino tux. A case in point is Angelina Jolie, who hit the red carpet at this yearвЂ™s Baftas in a slim-cut Saint Laurent smoking. Its name nods to 19th Century menвЂ™s smoking jackets, so called because their silk lapels were designed to allow any ash falling from after-dinner cigars or cigarettes to slide off, keeping the jacket clean.Д«uoyed by the release of two competing Saint Laurent biopics this year, le smoking is enjoying a comeback in the hands of the houseвЂ™s current creative director, Hedi Slimane, as the androgynous formalwear alternative of a niche crop of women with the confidence вЂ“ and figures вЂ“ to pull it off. The legendary couturier is said to have been inspired by the personal style of French artist Niki de Saint Phalle, who would wear a black-tie trouser suit with heels. In a lofty league of its own however, is вЂle smokingвЂ™, the first tuxedo for women, designed half a century ago by Yves Saint Laurent. From the bikini to the mini, several once-controversial womenвЂ™s garments have blended into the fashion mainstream.

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