Why is the “Bar Jacket” still a trend?

Designed in 1947 by Christian Dior, the Bar Jacket takes its name from the bar at the Plaza Hotel in Paris, where the women of the Café Society of the time wore the “new” suits with flared skirts and fitted jackets, created by the French designer and presented during the post-war period in his first Haute Couture collection. In contemporary fashion, the Bar Jacket, seventy-seven years after its runway debut, remains an important piece, whose hourglass silhouette has inspired and continues to influence the style choices of designers within the fashion system. The Corolle line of the pleated skirt and the eight-shaped jacket created by Dior became symbols of blooming after years when Parisian haute couture houses were forced to close due to Nazi occupation and the poverty caused by the world conflict. This new architecture designed for the female body returned to women a sensual and harmonious silhouette that opposed the austere wardrobe created by Coco Chanel in the 1920s, characterized by dark colors, comfortable and functional lines, free from the corsets of the Belle Époque. Although the feminist movements of the time detested this silhouette, considering it a cage of patriarchy that prevented women from moving and working, the Bar Jacket still achieved great success. The hourglass jacket continues to be a protagonist on the red carpets and runways today.

The most recent manifestation of the return of the jacket en huit (with its typical eight shape) occurred at this year’s Venice Film Festival, where Taylor Russell wore an archival Dior ensemble by John Galliano from the Misia Diva SS95 collection on the red carpet. The suit, in full Office Siren style, featured padded shoulders, a knee-length pencil skirt, and a jacket with a very tight waist, resembling a corset. This collection was inspired by Belle Époque clothing, specifically the style of Misia Sert, a friend of Picasso and muse of Renoir. Galliano had created a version in 1994 for Madonna's Take a Bow video, but with short sleeves. The piece in question is, among other things, very similar to an outfit that Dior himself designed in 1950 as a stage look for Marlene Dietrich in Stage Fright by Alfred Hitchcock. The French singer-songwriter Yseult also wore a faithful reproduction of the New Look (a term coined in 1947 by Harper’s Bazaar editor-in-chief Carmel Snow) on the red carpet at Cannes for the premiere of Megalopolis. In an article in W Magazine, Matthew Velasco wrote that the young French artist loves to make statements on the red carpet: wearing the historic duochrome suit, previously only seen on slender silhouettes, means challenging the social hierarchy of bodies and allowing physiques that do not conform to traditional standards to be represented.

The most recent manifestation of the return of the jacket en huit (with its typical eight shape) occurred at this year’s Venice Film Festival, where Taylor Russell wore an archival Dior ensemble by John Galliano from the Misia Diva SS95 collection on the red carpet. The suit, in full Office Siren style, featured padded shoulders, a knee-length pencil skirt, and a jacket with a very tight waist, resembling a corset. This collection was inspired by Belle Époque clothing and specifically the style of Misia Sert, a friend of Picasso and muse of Renoir. Galliano had created a version in 1994 for Madonna's Take a Bow video, but with short sleeves. The piece in question is, among other things, very similar to an outfit that Dior himself designed in 1950 as a stage look for Marlene Dietrich in Stage Fright by Alfred Hitchcock. Kendall Jenner also wore a series of "Ladies Who Lunch" outfits, including a navy blue Dior suit by John Galliano with a Bar Jacket featuring an asymmetrical neckline, during Paris Fashion Week between fittings and a lunch.

Jean Paul Gaultier, for example, created suits with sinuous shapes in pinstripes for some collections in the early '90s. In the Blond Ambition World Tour, Madonna wore one of these suits with the addition of two cuts on the décolleté to showcase the cone bra. More recently, in the Spring Couture 2024 of the French maison designed by Simone Rochas, we find Bar Jacket models with a coquette style featuring wide hips, raised embroidery, and bows. It is no surprise that Azzedine Alaïa and Thierry Mugler, great lovers of corsetry, like Gaultier himself, have used the hourglass jacket for their creations. The Tunisian designer in SS92 created form-fitting jackets with heart-shaped necklines framed by white lace, which were later donned by actress Winona Ryder and, more recently, by Alexa Demie, giving them a gothic allure. Mugler, fascinated by the eroticism of corsets and burlesque costumes, created jackets with wasp waists worn with miniskirts and garters during his theatrical runway shows (Spring Couture 1997), which we see in famous shots by Helmut Newton in the early '90s and in recent collections under the creative direction of designer Casey Cadwallader, particularly in Pre-Fall 2024. Recently, Kendall Jenner and Zendaya have also worn archival Mugler suits with similar hourglass lines during public appearances. The French singer-songwriter Yseult also wore a faithful reproduction of the New Look (a term coined in 1947 by Harper’s Bazaar editor-in-chief Carmel Snow) on the Cannes red carpet for the premiere of Megalopolis. In an article in W Magazine, Matthew Velasco wrote that the young French artist loves to make statements on the red carpet: wearing the historic duochrome suit, previously always seen on slender silhouettes, means challenging the social hierarchy of bodies and allowing physiques that do not conform to traditional standards to be represented.

But the Bar Jacket has also been worn by Gigi Hadid, Kendall Jenner, and Deva Cassel at the second edition of the Vogue World event, held last June in Paris at Place Vendôme. While retracing the history of French fashion, during the event the models paraded as young equestrians, wearing Bar jackets that had become part of the equestrian attire of high society women since the 1950s. In contrast, someone like Rihanna chose to modify the historic New Look of Dior, making it more contemporary: for the latest Haute Couture show of the maison, the singer wore a black suit that, while deconstructing it, echoed the shape of the classic Bar Jacket, which, instead of silk, was made of a fabric similar to that of puffer jackets. The typical raffia hat was also replaced with a baseball cap as a sign of modernity. A more structured and buttonless version of Rihanna's outfit was recently worn by Rosalia for Dior's SS25 collection. In this regard, Maria Grazia Chiuri, inspired by the mythological figure of the Amazon, presented the hourglass jacket in a short-sleeved version with a belt tied at the waist, similar to a kuro obi (black belt) used in karate, almost as if it were the sports uniform of an archer.

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The hourglass silhouette of the Bar Jacket has inspired both the golden oldies of fashion and the new generation of designers in the recent collections presented in Milan and Paris. For example, Jean Paul Gaultier created pinstriped suits with sinuous shapes in the early 1990s. In the Blond Ambition World Tour, Madonna wore one of these suits with the addition of two cuts on the neckline to showcase the cone bra. More recently, in the Spring Couture 2024 collection by the French maison designed by Simone Rochas, we find Bar Jacket models with a coquette style featuring wide hips, embossed embroidery, and bows. In a similar vein, Dolce & Gabbana, referencing Gaultier's creations for Madonna as well as the costumes they designed for her during the Girlie Show Tour (1993), proposed for SS25 snug double-breasted satin jackets with incorporated cone bras, paired with hold-ups and lace lingerie. Azzedine Alaïa and Thierry Mugler, both great lovers of corsetry, also utilized the hourglass jacket in their creations. The Tunisian designer created jackets with sinuous lines and heart-shaped necklines framed by white lace in SS92, which were later worn by actress Winona Ryder and, more recently, Alexa Demie, giving them a gothic allure. Mugler, fascinated by the eroticism of corsets and burlesque costumes, created jackets with wasp-waists worn with miniskirts and garters in his theatrical runway shows (Spring Couture 1997), which we see in famous shots by Helmut Newton in the early '90s and in recent collections under the creative direction of Casey Cadwallader, particularly in SS25, where the designer made hourglass jackets inspired by images showcasing cross-sections of flowers, almost as if wanting to highlight the "anatomical" complexity of the corollas in the construction of the garment.

Simone Bellotti, the creative director of Bally, also reinterpreted the silhouette in SS25 by creating shaping blazers and coats entirely in leather, inspired by the shape of cowbells. We can observe contemporary variations of the Hourglass Jacket in the “Wow” SS25 collection from Bottega Veneta, where Matthieu Blazy crafted hourglass jackets: some in checkered patterns and others featuring a rabbit shape instead of the classic lapel. In SS25, Séan McGirr, the new creative director of Alexander McQueen, reintroduced jackets with this fit, a long-standing signature of the brand, paired with shirts that had "creepy" Dracula collars. Demna Gvasalia from Balenciaga also exaggerated the sinuousness of the silhouette by creating his Hourglass jacket, which he transformed into a long, dark evening gown in the latest SS25 collection. Another version appeared in the FW24 collection of The Attico, featuring very oversized shoulders paired with cargo pants or worn as an evening dress. This silhouette has caught the attention of designers like Thom Browne, who included it in his collections (Couture Fall 2024), as well as Yohji Yamamoto, who proposed a deconstructed variant in FW24 with fabric scraps on the shoulders, creating an effect of incompleteness on the garment. Additionally, Nicolas Ghesquière from Louis Vuitton designed hourglass jackets paired with wide-brimmed hats for Resort 2025. This shape also captivated Oliver Rousteing, the designer of Balmain, who presented double-breasted blazers with pointed shoulders in SS25.

Even at Dior, after the death of the founder in 1957, the new creative directors, from Yves Saint Laurent to Maria Grazia Chiuri, preserved the stylistic legacy of the Bar Jacket, reintroducing it in collections while adding their personal touch. Marc Bohan, for example, who led the maison from 1960 to 1989, recognized the stylistic value of the Bar Jacket and proposed it as a wedding dress in the 1987 Couture collection. The Bar Jacket will also resonate with the baroque and romantic taste of Gianfranco Ferré, the theatrical and transgressive maximalism of John Galliano, and the minimalism of Raf Simons. Last February, the emblematic jacket of French fashion returned to the big screen, featured in the series The New Look, produced by Todd A. Kessler, which traces the genesis of the suit, Christian Dior's career, and the dramas and rivalries with Coco Chanel, Pierre Balmain, and Cristóbal Balenciaga, who were also key figures in the transformation that fashion was undergoing at the end of World War II. The Bar Jacket has been a symbol of a society that is reborn, has traversed time, and, more than other garments, possesses the transformative ability to imagine, shape, and sculpt the body, reproducing a silhouette that adapts to various physiques and that, while nostalgic and somewhat traditional, still captivates.

The current creative director, Maria Grazia Chiuri, has successfully modernized the Bar Jacket by redesigning its rigid construction, using softer fabrics for the internal padding, making it a comfortable and functional piece of everyday wardrobe. To demonstrate the importance that the designer has placed and still places on this historic garment, Chiuri produced a documentary in 2022 titled The Greek Bar Jacket, available on the brand's YouTube channel, in which she aimed to tell the story of the jacket's origins and the construction process in the workshop of Greek tailor and embroiderer Aristeidis Tzonevrakis.