Thank You For Le Smoking: The Chicest Women in Tuxedos

By Veronique Hyland

There’s a mysterious allure about a woman in the most masculine piece of clothing: a tuxedo. Marlene Dietrich, with her love of on- and offscreen cross-dressing, knew it. Yves Saint Laurent knew it when he popularized the term le smoking to describe his take on black-tie eveningwear in 1966 to great fanfare. Women’s Wear Daily had a typical reaction: “Standing on the barricades he sows terror inside its institutions,” they said of the designer at the time. And fellow enfant terrible Hedi Slimane, who recently shot Abbey Lee Kershaw in one of his Saint Laurent suits, knows it. Here, our collection of women in the boundary-pushing classic.

Related: See 40 Chic Celebrities Wearing Head-to-Toe White

image

Photo: Dave J Hogan/2014 Dave J Hogan

Angelina Jolie, 2014

Related: French Lessons: The 50 Chicest French Women Ever

image

Photo: Archive Photos/Getty Images

Marlene Dietrich, Circa 1930

Related: The 50 Most Iconic Gender Benders of All Time

image

Photo:Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Carey Mulligan, 2013

Related: Iconic, Intimate Shots of Hollywood’s Heyday

image

Photo: Corbis

Bianca Jagger, 1974

Related: Revisit Studio 54 In These Stunning Photos

image

Photo:Michael Buckner/Getty Images

Janelle Monae, 2012

Related: See The 40 Chicest Women in Trench Coats of All Time


image

Photo: Miquel Benitez/Getty Images

Kate Moss, 2012

See the rest of our 40 chicest celebrities in tuxedos over at The Cut.