Which fashion brand created the 1966 Le Smoking tuxedo for women?

Yves Saint Laurent created the Le Smoking tuxedo for women in 1966.

Saint Laurent introduced Le Smoking as part of his autumn-winter 1966 collection. The design adapted the traditionally masculine dinner suit into a sharply tailored option for women, with a jacket, trousers, shirt, and often a bow tie or cummerbund. Its name comes from the French term for a dinner jacket or tuxedo.

The garment became a major statement about modern women’s clothing. It offered an alternative to evening dresses and demonstrated how tailoring could be elegant, sensual, and authoritative at the same time. Photographer Helmut Newton’s 1975 image of a woman in a Saint Laurent tuxedo later strengthened its cultural impact.

Le Smoking is sometimes confused with Saint Laurent’s “Mondrian dress,” which was also a landmark design of the 1960s but was created in 1965. The tuxedo belongs specifically to 1966 and is associated with Yves Saint Laurent’s pioneering use of traditionally masculine tailoring for women.