1970

Man's Suit: Jacket and Trousers

As menswear became a fashion commodity in the 1960s, designers of women's fashions began to venture into men's clothing. One of the first major American designers to do so was Bill Blass, who produced a men's line for the Philadelphia firm of Pincus Brothers Maxwell in 1967, and won the first Coty menswear award the following year. Blass's sophisticated suit retains the traditional form—albeit with modish wide lapels and trouser cuffs—but the wildly patterned Italian double-knit makes it refreshingly novel.