STRONG SUITS
A new generation of women discover the real power of suiting is its freedom.
It’s not often that an elevator pitch works as well as it did for Sali Christeson and Eleanor Turner.
A year ago, the co-founders of work-wear brand Argent were standing in a photo line to meet Hillary Clinton, who was speaking publicly not long after attending the presidential inauguration.
The women, who had quit their jobs at Cisco and J. Crew to make suits, were eager for an audience with the matriarch of Pantsuit Nation. But the people who had gone before them didn’t seem to be talking much, which worried them.
“When I held open my jacket, her jaw dropped,” recalls Christeson, the company’s San Francisco chief executive officer. (Argent’s blazers are made with a functionality that obviates a purse, including “stylus” and “media” pockets.)
“Her immediate reaction was, ‘I love it, I want to wear it.’ I think she appreciated that we were female entrepreneurs. Our mission really resonates.”
Clinton motioned to her team, as the story goes, and longtime aide Huma Abedin popped in to make sure the connection was made. Soon after, Clinton wore the same blazer that Turner had been wearing — a $358 purple gingham-print tiewaist — to speak at a Planned Parenthood event in May, and has appeared a number of times in public wearing Argent. Abedin and Gloria Steinem are now also fans of the brand, which has outposts in New York, San Francisco and — no surprise — Washington, D.C.
Women have increasingly been turning to sartorial statements — all-black, pink-knitted hats, flat shoes — as nonverbal rallying cries in the past year. And now they’re finding salvation in a pantsuit as a celebration of freedom of movement and choice.
Visual discovery app Pinterest reports that searches for “suits for women” have increased nearly 200 percent from January 2017 to January 2018. Pinterest’s “guided” searches, based on how other Pinners are searching, turn up interests including tailored suits, stylish suits, and wedding or prom suits.
Ironically, the pantsuit’s ascendance comes at a time when men’s suits — as a work uniform at least — are on the decline. As Washington Post fashion journalist Robin Givhan recently wrote, in the world of men’s tailoring, “the power suit is dead,” and wearing a suit is no longer about power, but rather about style.
When was the last time Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg or Apple’s Tim Cook took the stage in a blazer, to say nothing of a suit and tie?
At the Golden Globes, Claire Foy (nominated for her role as Queen Elizabeth in “The Crown”) wore a pantsuit, as did Kyra Sedgwick and Susan Sarandon. Others who wore pants — normally a red carpet anomaly — include Debra Messing, Christina Hendricks and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Gal Gadot (who wore flats throughout her “Wonder Woman” press tour) wore a blazer to the Globes. Evan Rachel Wood wore suits — and only suits — for her 2017 appearances.
There is a sense of victory that suits on women are no longer as shocking as in 1972, when Jane Fonda accepted an Academy Award in a black Yves Saint Laurent suit to reflect the seriousness of the Vietnam War.
Today, rather than conveying a somber or rebellious sentiment, wearing a pantsuit reflects a general relaxation of the rules regarding what one might wear.
“I wore the suit, and that might seem like a dumb, insignificant thing to some people, but little things like that really do make a difference,” Wood told Women’s Wear Daily in September.
She said her year of suiting wasn’t an act of protest or power dressing, but rather a reminder to “be yourself.”
“Things feel very palpable right now,” says Turner, Argent’s New York-based chief creative officer. “The power suit from the ’80s and ’90s was a symbol for women’s equality that was long forgotten. It has become a symbol but also an important part of a career woman’s wardrobe, even if you are wearing jeans and a T-shirt. You can pop on a blazer and look polished.”
Words such as “power suit” and “menswear” have fallen out of favor, says San Francisco suit designer Emily Meyer, whose bespoke suits for women start at $1,200 but can be as much as $6,000. Most of Meyer’s clients are in New York, San Francisco or Los Angeles.
“Power dressing got a bad rap,” Meyer says. Instead of thinking of wearing a suit as so-called “power dressing,” Meyer considers it an exercise of power to not be bound by something, sartorial or otherwise: “Women having possession of themselves. That is what is big right now,” she says.
Today’s pantsuit can be worn for myriad occasions and with a range of accoutrements, from just a bra (or none at all) to a hoodie and sneakers. It’s no longer characterized as “borrowing from the boys” or “menswear-inspired,” Meyer says.
“Women don’t have to behave anymore,” she says. “Nothing bad is going to happen.”
In October, Dutch menswear brand Suitsupply inaugurated its new women’s suiting brand, Suistudio, with an ad campaign that provocatively illustrated its opus of #notdressingmen: Fully suited female models in luxury apartments with nude men, faces obscured, in the background.
Suitsupply chief executive officer Fokke de Jong said the campaign, designed to differentiate the two brands, generated an overwhelming response.
De Jong says that despite many requests to make suiting for women, it took a couple of years to refine the fit and craftsmanship. Suistudio has stores in New York, Shanghai and Amsterdam, and suits cost about $500.
“We had one shot to do it really well. It’s not like you take a man’s suit and you alter it and you suddenly have a women’s suit,” he says. “It’s a whole new product.”
While fashion brands have a long history of making political statements, “it’s important not to overshadow why suiting has become increasingly popular,” says Kristina Barricelli, who is vice president of Suistudio USA. “They are sensible and comfortable.”
“Suiting can be as comfortable as a pair of pajamas or a pair of jeans. It becomes effortless getting ready in the morning — you don’t have to think that much about how to pair things together,” Barricelli says. “Also, it looks great. That’s the bottom line.”