Why Is It Called a Pussy-Bow Blouse?

Is it time to retire the term “pussy bow”? How did it come to be? Beyond the cute cat at the window, the more vulgar connotations are insulting to many women. What else could it be called? — Lisa, New York

The pussy-bow blouse is one of those fashion terms that has taken on multiple connotations over the decades, all of which have culminated in its current incarnation: political lightning rod. It was not always thus.

In the beginning, the style, which essentially refers to a blouse with a floppy tie that looks sort of like a cross between a bow tie, a cravat and a thin scarf, was known as a lavaliere or lavaliere shirt.

Reportedly associated with the Duchess of La Vallière, a mistress of Louis XIV, it became popular among the French left in the 19th century, was later adopted as part of the Gibson girl look in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and was then popularized by Coco Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent in the 1950s and ’60s. The term itself made its debut in 1930s dress patterns, thanks to its resemblance to the ribbons it was then popular to tie — yup — around the necks of feline pets.

The look was often “associated with women who are starting to invade male spaces — the golf course, the workplace — and to challenge traditional dress codes,” Kate Strasdin, a fashion historian at Falmouth University, told The Guardian when the newspaper spoke to her after Kate Moss’s appearance at the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial. (Ms. Moss had worn a jacket and polka-dot bow blouse.)

More than Ms. Moss, the women invading traditional male spaces most associated with the tie-neck blouse were the working women of the late 1970s and ’80s, and their role model, Britain’s first female prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. At least until the 2016 presidential election in the United States, the Donald Trump “grab them by the pussy” scandal and Melania Trump’s wearing a blouse with a bow at the neck at a Biden-Trump debate soon after.

Cue social media double-entendre delight.