For his first campaign collaboration with Yves Saint Laurent in 1999, Mario Sorrenti created a series of adverts that appropriated famous works from art history. The present work reimagines Manet’s celebrated painting of 1863, Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe, which was received with equal measure of shock and enthusiasm when it appeared in the Salon des Refusés. Fast-forward 100 years to 1966, the year YSL introduced Le Smoking, the first tuxedo for women, which caused similar outrage at a time when it was still scandalous for a woman to dress publically in trousers.

Sorrenti cleverly brings together these departure points in the history of art and history of fashion to create his imagery. Depicting Kate Moss in a classic Le Smoking suit while the men are rendered nude, he has reversed the gender roles that so shocked the painting’s first audience. Sorrenti’s work resides in a number of public collections, including V&A, London; National Portrait Gallery, London; and New York Public Library.