Claudia Winkleman's new Marks & Spencer tuxedo is a party season hero
It would be mad of us to suggest that the tuxedo jacket ever went out of style, but it's certainly been enjoying a moment in the spotlight in recent years, with everybody from Kate Moss to Claudia Winkleman stepping out in the forever-stylish, satin-lapelled blazer.
The tuxedo jacket's modern renaissance arguably started when Kate Moss wore Yves Saint Laurent's iconic original to the French fashion house's SS24 Paris Fashion Week show. More recently, Nicole Kidman wore a cropped style to the premiere of Lioness season two, following Dakota Johnson's similar on-trend choice when promoting her movie Madame Web earlier this year.
Cara Delevingne and Victoria Beckham are both often seen in tuxedo jackets, while Zendaya stunned in a black Louis Vuitton blazer with oversized white lapels when attending the fashion house's runway show last month.
Let's not forget Anna Kendrick's striking sleeveless tuxedo blazer at the Woman of the Hour premiere, either. Or, of course, the plethora of street style stars who have been championing the tux during the biannual Fashion Weeks in London, Paris, New York, Copenhagen and Milan.
So, once only 'belonging' to the boys, when did the women's tuxedo jacket become a hero in its own right? Well, YSL's silk-lapelled 'Le Smoking' tuxedo was the first of its kind to earn global attention when it launched in 1966, after the legendary designer re-cut the classic man's dinner jacket to flatter a woman's body (note its tapered waist and slimmer collar).
"For a woman, the tuxedo is an indispensable garment in which she will always feel in style, for it is a stylish garment and a not a fashionable garment," Saint Laurent famously said of his re-imagined hero. "Fashions fade; style is eternal."
'Le Smoking''s iconic status as what Saint Laurent called "the very symbol of the modern woman" was cemented in style circles in 1971, when Bianca Jagger married The Rolling Stones' frontman Mick wearing a white version in St. Tropez. The designer continued to riff on the jacket until his final collection in 2002 – and its legacy lives on.
For her aforementioned FROW appearance last autumn, Kate wore 'Le Smoking' with a cream silk camisole, black silk pencil skirt, sheer tights and patent brown court shoes – a look of timeless perfection – but we've seen plenty of stylish takes cropping up at more accessible prices.
H&M's affordable offerings always feel like particularly great steals for party season, while new M&S ambassador Claudia Winkleman has been seen wearing a cool velvet tuxedo suit from the high-street hero's elevated Jaeger line.
Here are just a few of the women's tuxedo jackets we have our eye on now:
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