Fashion: The business of blazers

Typically a menswear staple, French stage artiste Sarah Bernhardt—who played the lead role in Shakespeare’s Hamlet—caused quite the stir in 1870s Parisian society when she stepped out in a suit. At the beginning of the 1900s, along with shaking off outdated thinking from the 1800s, women in the suffragette movement popularised less restrictive clothing, leading to the Suffragette Suit. It included a coat and a split skirt that allowed wearers to take extended steps, providing freedom of movement. Then, in 1914, Coco Chanel debuted her women’s suit, followed by Yves Saint Laurent in 1966 with the ‘Le Smoking’ female tuxedo.