Exploring the influence of Coco Chanel on incorporating menswear into women’s fashion,

particularly by creating suits, trousers, and using jersey fabrics for the female figure.

Mekenna Malan

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Chanel opened a clothing store in Paris in 1921. While in Paris, she designed the Chanel suit, the

first suit ever created for women. Generally designed as a boxy wool jacket with braid trim,

metallic buttons, and fitted sleeves, the suit gave the women who wore it a sleek and

professional look. It was more than a fashion statement: the suit allowed those who wore it to

display the pursuit of their industrial goals and encourage an independent lifestyle during the

time the husbands of WWI were coming home from the battlefield.

The Chanel suit falls into the body enclosures group of the classification system. It is pre-shaped

and wrapped around the body. The Chanel suit specifically affects the shape and structure of

the body wearing it.

The body is an armature for this particular dress practice. Based on Sheldon’s somatotypes,

women with any of the three body types could wear a Chanel suit to showcase their

independence and indicate to others their professional agenda.

As previously mentioned, the Chanel suit was brought about because of environmental and

occupational changes. While men were leaving to fight in WWI, women were more likely to get

jobs to support their families. After the war ended, women continued to prove their dominance

in the workplace, and Chanel was the first to create a suit that embodied feminine freedom.

According to Siple’s clothing zones, the Chanel suit fits perfectly with both the two and three-

layer zones. In a cool climate, a suit gives the perfect amount of warmth. Wearing a Chanel suit

in a one-layer zone would be too hot, whereas wearing it in any cooler clothing zone would be

freezing.

Women in the west began wearing pants for work and sports in the late 1800’s. With the influence of

Coco Chanel, a women’s line of trousers became seen as chic as late as the 1930’s. Even during that

time, the idea of women in pants was seen as scandalous to many. Chanel led by her own example, as

she was quite annoyed with wearing skirts, and there are many stories of her making unorthodox

statements by tossing them aside. Once while horse riding, she was rumored to have literally taken the

pants off of a male rider and wearing them. Her legions of chic – and gutsy – followers modeled their

own styles after her not long after she made a statement in sailor’s pants at a beach resort in lieu of a

swimsuit.

Trousers fall into the body enclosures group of the classification system. It is suspended from the hips.

Trousers on women specifically affect the volume & proportion, shape & structure, and texture of a

body example. Wearing trousers may have affected the sound an outfit may make when walking,

especially as a change from the skirts and dresses that women were used to wearing.

The body is an armature for this particular dress practice. Based on Sheldon’s somatotypes, women with

any of the three body types could wear trousers to showcase their independence and indicate to others

their professional agenda.

A women’s line of trousers was brought about by Chanel largely because of her own interests. She found

it extremely difficult to ride a horse in a skirt, and showcased feminism at its finest by proving that

women could wear trousers the same as men. "I gave women a sense of freedom," she once said. "I

gave them back their bodies: bodies that were drenched in sweat, due to fashion's finery, lace, corsets,

underclothes, padding."

According to Siple’s clothing zones, trousers fit perfectly with both the two and three-layer zones. In a

cool climate, trousers give the perfect amount of warmth. Wearing trousers in a one-layer zone would

be too hot, whereas wearing it in any cooler clothing zone would be freezing.

With the goal of comfort closer achieved with the incorporation of trousers in women’s dress practices,

using jersey as a fabric for feminine clothing was a game-changer. Chanel made this statement in 1916,

using jersey for the first time for anything other than men’s undergarments. Chanel designed neutral-

colored jersey dresses to hug and flatter a woman’s natural figure, rather than distort it.

Clothing made of jersey falls into the body enclosures group of the classification system. Designs can be

a combination of both wrapped and suspended enclosures. Jersey dresses specifically affect the volume

& proportion, shape & structure, and texture of a body example. In a time when popular clothing was

meant to emphasize and alter a woman’s body shape, jersey was made popular by being one of the first

breathable dress fabrics.

The body is an armature for this particular dress practice. Based on Sheldon’s somatotypes, women with

any of the three body types could wear jersey dresses to showcase their natural body type and dress

chic in a comfortable way.

Not only was Chanel’s incorporation of jersey into women’s fashion chic, but it was also timely. At the

end of WWI, expensive fabric was hard to come by. Chanel designed clothing with jersey because it was

a breathable and forgiving fabric, but it was also a necessity.

According to Siple’s clothing zones, jersey fits perfectly with both the one and two-layer zones. Because

jersey is a light fabric, it could be worn comfortably in moderate heat. Wearing jersey in a climate any

colder than a two-layer zone would be too cold.

High-density urban setting Women in the workplace

Economic Hardship Only cheap fabrics available

War

Merge in gender roles

Coco Chanel incorporated menswear into women’s fashion due society at the time of her creations and

the economic hardships that resulted due to war. With the men fighting, women were required to begin

working in order to keep their families financially stable. As women in the workplace grew to become a

culture trait, Chanel designed trousers and suits for women to showcase their newfound independence

and professional work ethic. Due to the bad economy, Chanel searched to find a cheaper fabric

alternative, and began to use jersey. Although only have been used in the past to make men’s

undergarments, the fabric was comfortable, workable, and above all, affordable.

Dress is a shorthand expression of cultural history because dress reflects the beliefs, ideologies, and

characteristics of a certain frame of time. While war, economic hardship, and gender norms were

changing, Chanel allowed these unsatisfactory culture traits to fuel her creative genius and created high-

end clothing for industrialized women. Her creations span throughout all culture scales, as domestic-

scale mothers were required to venture into the workspace to feed their families, they began wearing

comfortable and professional suits and trousers. Her clothing - namely the trousers, suits and jersey

fabrics that she incorporated into women’s fashion – was trendy and scandalous enough at the time to

appeal to women in both the political and commercial-scale cultures as well.

The use of jersey fabric and incorporation of suits and trousers into women’s fashion are easily

identified as zeitgeist, or the spirit of the times. The modification of the popular women’s skirts into

trousers exemplified the social value of being a part of the working class. The modification of dresses

into suits for women exemplified the trend of the women’s trouser and the trend of feminine

independence. Using cheap jersey fabric to create women’s clothing despite its past use for men’s

underwear exemplified the social value and trend of being frugal during the Great Depression.

The incorporation of suits and trousers are, in a way, body-dominant. Rather than drawing attention to

parts of the body on the individual wearing the suit, the integration of menswear into women’s fashion

was to draw attention to the woman as an independent and professional being. With their husbands

away at war, women discovered their self-reliance as the breadwinner of the family. Both the suit and

trouser, as Chanel made for women, was meant to announce through dress the professional status and

work ethic of the female wearing it. This fashion statement remains today. Using jersey fabrics to create

dresses was a body-dominant move by Chanel. The jersey fabric fit more snug and shaped around the

female body more fluidly than the fabric used to create dresses in the past. A body-dominant female

silhouette was created.

Chanel’s aesthetic complied with the belief that “less is more.” Ease of movement through lightweight

fabrics was created often through her designs, and a stripped-down silhouette that portrayed the power

of menswear became the Chanel aesthetic as well. The Chanel aesthetic went directly against the

popular aesthetic for women’s clothing at the time (Erick, 2009). The prescribed form for women’s

fashion was long dresses and skirts for women, made of thick and heavy fabrics. This is the complete

opposite of Chanel’s shapely jersey dresses, pin-tucked suits, skirts that cut off higher up the leg than

before, and trousers for women. Women who participated in Chanel’s revolution conveyed a message

of self-sufficiency, power, and professionalism.

The ensembles Chanel created that incorporated menswear defied the cultural norm of what was

attractive at the time. The form of Chanel’s clothing brought more attention and emphasis to the female

form than other popular clothing. When she first released her creations, her shorter dresses and

feminine silhouettes, even though created through menswear, were considered scandalous. Chanel

often created clothing with monochrome colors, often creating harmonious ensembles in full black.

Those who dressed in Chanel’s feminine menswear were making a statement of individuality. Those who

wore traditional dresses during the time of Chanel’s popularity might have been considered dependent

homemakers, while those who wore her suits and jerseys portrayed an individualistic mindset of

professional and financial independence. Cultural ideas of unique individuals often portray said

individuals as trailblazers, and these hardworking women were just that.

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