Why celebrities and Gen Z women love the jacket-and-tie look

From the catwalk to the red carpet, the jacket-and-necktie combo is back for women – it’s a statement of power and authority, say fans of the look.

The jacket-and-necktie combination has been a staple of male dress for centuries, but it’s always been most striking and subversive when worn by women. Now, it’s making a comeback in women’s fashion once more.

On runways, designers are re-inventing the look. In her recent London Fashion Week collection, Tolu Coker showcased oversized leather blazers, paired with satin ties and tailored shirts. While at New York Fashion Week, Thom Browne teamed classic pattern ties with structured patchwork jackets.  

The trend isn’t limited to the catwalk. Viewers of the recent Grammy awards may have noticed Sabrina Carpenter’s Dolce & Gabbana show-girl outfit, a Swarovski crystal-encrusted black blazer, with matching tie and skirt. Billie Eilish even offers a tie as part of her official merchandise. 

The red carpet is adopting the look, too. At the Berlin Film Festival, Vicky Krieps wore an oversized Bottega Veneta suit. Meanwhile, Doechii styled a Thom Browne exaggerated trouser with a cropped jacket and tie to accept her Grammy win. Nicole Kidman has gone for the jacket-and-tie look too in YSL, joining a growing list of celebrities including Rihanna, Bella Hadid and Iris Law, who have all embraced the label’s style of tailoring.   

Yasmine Tangou is also in the fan club. The content creator and architect, who lives in Paris, likes the oversized, masculine style of a YSL suit, in contrast to other styles of jacket that accentuate curves.  

Since moving to the French capital from Milan, Tangou has trawled vintage shops in search of men’s suits. She prefers their structure. “I like the movement in a men’s garment and the wider, boxier silhouette,” she tells the BBC.

On TikTok, Tangou showcases her outfits to thousands of viewers, pairing ties with bomber jackets, trench coats and blazers. “From a social point of view, I really like that wearing a tie and jacket is bold,” she tells the BBC. “People don’t expect it on a woman.”  

When it comes to corporate-style looks, Tangou prefers the jacket and tie to the recent office-siren trend because it feels “unsexualised,” she says. “I thought the office-siren look was really cool, but it was about showing off the body, whereas this look is about the garment.” 

 “Wearing a broad-shouldered jacket makes a statement,” she says.  “There is power in strong silhouettes.” To balance the masculine structure of her outfits, Tangou draws inspiration from YS’s approach. “I always add a feminine touch,” she explains. “That could be a full face of makeup, a floral clutch bag or a pair of heels.” 

Although the jacket-and-tie look is experiencing a revival, this isn’t the first time women’s fashion has embraced it.

Fashion historian Linda Welters traces the trend back to the 19th Century, starting with bowties. She points to John Singer Sargent’s 1897 painting of Mr and Mrs Stokes. In it, Mr Stokes stands behind his wife, who wears a bowtie and a shirtwaist – a women’s blouse styled like a men’s shirt, which was representative of the “new woman”, in rejecting Victorian ideas of femininity.

Welters, a professor at the University of Rhode Island, notes the necktie has long been associated with power and authority in both men’s and women’s fashion. It’s why some suffragettes wore ties at the beginning of the 20th Century, while campaigning for the vote. 

Later, in 1930, Marlene Dietrich created an iconic style moment when she wore a suit and bowtie in the film Morocco. It was in the 1960s, though, when the suit and bowtie were first embraced by major fashion houses. In 1966, Yves Saint Laurent unveiled the Le Smoking tuxedo suit for women. Alas it was deemed ahead of its time among the designer’s haute couture fans, with only one suit selling. However the version created for Saint Laurent’s ready-to-wear line Rive Gauche was a big success, attracting a younger clientele. Saint Laurent then went on to include it in each of his collections until his retirement in 2002.

While women are increasingly turning to the tie and jacket, in recent years, the look has fallen out of favour in men’s fashion, something that is noticeable in both politics and business. Some attribute this to the rise of remote work during Covid, while others see it as an attempt by powerful figures to appear more approachable. Some of the world’s wealthiest and most influential businessmen, from Mark Zuckerberg to Jeff Bezos, rarely wear jackets and ties. President Zelensky avoids the suit as a mark of solidarity with Ukrainian soldiers. 

Welters points out that, “men have considered the jacket and tie optional for the last 15 years, with open-collar shirts becoming more common”. She says this shift in menswear has paved the way for womenswear to “claim and feminise the look”.  

She also connects the trend to global politics. “Fashion labels are responding to a rise in conservative values,” she says. “Theres a growing perception that married women do fine at home, but designers are challenging this by styling women in jackets and ties which project authority and power.” 

However Dr Gaby Harris, a fashion cultures sociologist and lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, sees it differently. Although she agrees the trend is politically influenced, she links it to the era of dominant male leaders, such as President Donald Trump.  

“Jackets and ties have long been symbols of the powerful class – we refer to ‘white-collar’ workers,” Harris tells the BBC. “Over time, this style has become associated with dominance. Women adopting this look are aligning with a traditionally male expression of power, at a time when strong, macho leaders are in office.” 

Harris also attributes the trend to personal branding: “We place significant value on individuals as brands, so wearing a jacket and tie make sense because it’s a symbol of authority and competence. By wearing a tie and jacket on a red carpet, celebrities are projecting themselves as leaders and CEOs.”  

Not everyone believes it’s political though. For Holly Beddingfield, the suit revival is about a new generation enjoying office-wear for the first time. The editor of Capsule, a fashion and pop culture newsletter, describes herself as a “Zillennial”, as she is at the older end of the Gen-Z age bracket.  

She explains that for her generation office attire is a novelty. “We haven’t worked in formal environments before, and since lots of offices are ending working from home, we’re thinking, ‘why not have fun with dressing for work?'”  

Ties are not only a fun way to experiment with style but, as Beddingfield notes, “a cheap way of making you feel put together”. 

“I really like masculine-inspired fashion,” she tells the BBC. “I wear lots of oversized-men’s items, but that can stray into the territory of looking lazy and like I don’t care. But a tie can take a boyish outfit, and make it look polished, in the same way having my nails done and wearing jewellery does too.”  

It’s a sentiment that suit-and-tie loving Bella Freud agrees with. In an interview last year with the BBC, the British designer recalled that as a teenager, “I put on this boy’s shirt, and I stared at myself in the mirror. Suddenly I felt agile and powerful. It was a real moment for me”.   

As a teenager who idolised tie-loving pop-rock stars Avril Lavigne and Hayley Williams in the Noughties, Beddingfield says she has waited a long time for them to be back in fashion, so when BoyGenius wore them for much of their tour last year, she was thrilled. “It was always cool in America,” she jokes, “and finally it’s becoming cool in the UK too”.   

For anyone wanting to introduce a jacket and tie combination to their wardrobe, Beddingfield advises “keeping it simple”. 

“Take your current favourite bottoms, whether that’s jeans or a skirt, and add a shirt, tie and your most-loved jacket,” she says. “Don’t completely re-invent a new look because you won’t feel comfortable – instead build on an outfit you already love.”