V&A
Olive Green Wool Military-Inspired Skirt Suit
Wartime / Utility Fashion · 1970s · French
Designer
Yves Saint Laurent
Production
ready-to-wear
Material
wool
Culture
French
Movement
Le Smoking revolution
Influences
military uniform styling · masculine tailoring adaptation
This olive green wool suit features a cropped military-style jacket with pronounced lapels, chest patch pockets with flaps, and front button closure. The jacket hits at the natural waist, creating a structured silhouette typical of Saint Laurent's military-inspired designs. The matching A-line skirt appears to fall to mid-thigh length. The wool fabric has a substantial weight and matte finish. The construction shows precise tailoring with clean lines and sharp edges on the lapels and pocket details. This piece exemplifies Saint Laurent's revolutionary approach to women's fashion in the early 1970s, translating masculine military elements into sophisticated feminine wear through expert French couture techniques.
dressstraightknee length
Connected To
Influences·military uniform styling
SHARED90 years · cross-culture · cross-category
Both garments borrow the crisp authority of military dress, but they translate it through completely different social codes. The scarlet hunting coat, with its brass buttons and structured silhouette, channels the pageantry of British military tradition into aristocratic leisure—a costume for the ritualized violence of the hunt.
Echoes Across Time
Victorian Late / Bustle → Wartime / Utility Fashion · 90yr62%
SHARED
Both garments borrow the crisp authority of military dress, but they translate it through completely different social codes. The scarlet hunting coat, with its brass buttons and structured silhouette, channels the pageantry of British military tradition into aristocratic leisure—a costume for the ritualized violence of the hunt.
Influences·military uniform styling
Wartime / Utility Fashion → Victorian Early / Crinoline · 110yr61%
Pull the Thread→
Follow this garment wherever the graph leads
