We at Zaynah are here to take you through a brief history of the suit which symbolizes freedom and power, while representing the liberated woman. Grab a snack, sit tight and enjoy.
Lets begin at the beginning (hehe, that statement sounds both cute and very intelligent- give us some props, A for effort?): suits initially made their debut in the year 666 (yikes!) this later evolved into the modern suit for men. The suit belonged to men, until 1870. That was until actress, Sarah Bernhardt (a true suffragette), defied the social norms and began sporting a custom trouser suit that she referred to as her “boy’s clothes”.
By the year 1905, European women had adopted the modern suit as part of their daily wardrobe. Up until this time, women wearing pants had been considered a form of cross-dressing and was even often criminalized.
Coco Chanel found inspiration from her boyfriend’s closet. She recognized that men’s clothing was more comfortable and wanted to liberate women from the restrictive clothing of the 1920‘s, so she merged masculine comfort with a feminine aesthetic. Enter The Chanel Suit. Now, Chanel’s suits have dressed women for over 90 years and her tweed styles from the 1920s still remain a symbol of fashion today.
In 1933, Eleanor Roosevelt was the first First Lady to ever wear trousers at an official White House event. The more masculine style of dressing during the fifties died down meaning that the Woman’s Suit had a lull period. Men went to war and women returned to the more “traditional” domestic roles.
That didn’t last long, however. The 1960‘s were a time for women’s rights, equal opportunity, and liberation. Women’s suits, and women in the workplace, were back and better than ever. Thankfully, in 1971, Bianca Pérez-Mora Macías married Mick Jagger in an all-white, Le Smoking tuxedo that went down in bridal wear history.
By the 1980s women accounted for 50% of the workforce and we saw the rise of the iconic “power suit”. Finally. In 1993 Senators like Barbara Mikulski and Carol Moseley-Braun fought to overturn the ban on women wearing trousers on the Senate floor. Yup, you read that right. Not even thirty years ago, women could have been expelled from Congress just for wearing pants.
Fast forward to today…
The suit still holds power but less of a statement due to the integration of this piece into female fashion in general. This leaves us at Zaynah with a sense of responsibility to all the iconic women who made it possible for us to create garments for you that make you feel styling and most of all comfortable. We cannot wait to share our SS2021 range, maybe, just maybe the iconic suit (in linen) will be the star of the show- but, you didn’t hear it from me.
Love always,
Zaynah
Shop: www.zaynah.co.za
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