Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche Long Earrings
About the Item
- Creator:
- Metal:
- Dimensions:Width: 1.5 in (38.1 mm)Length: 3.75 in (95.25 mm)
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1990
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU463175403
Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche
Visionary French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent was the first to launch a ready-to-wear label, YSL Rive Gauche Prêt-à-Porter. The inaugural Rive Gauche boutique — a modern shop in Paris’s bustling, bohemian Left Bank district — offered stylish garments and accessories that were intended to be affordable for a younger generation of fashion enthusiasts. The store featured Mies van der Rohe chairs and played host to actor Catherine Deneuve during its grand opening.
Saint Laurent pioneered “cross-design” in fashion, taking inspiration from street trends to modernize haute couture. He was the first couturier to open boutiques for both men and women. Using traditional menswear fabrics and designs for women, he also literally cross-dressed, giving men and women alike chic pant suits, elegant tuxedo jackets and urban safari gear. By blurring gender-specific design, he empowered individual style while creating a scissor-sharp fashion aesthetic of sensual ease and beauty. Many of his designs are today considered timeless classics. Saint Laurent also consistently used Black models, like Mounia, Iman and Naomi Campbell, and he drew endless inspiration from different ethnicities and cultures, in no small part because of his Algerian roots.
Born to French parents in Oran, Algeria, in 1936, Saint Laurent went to Paris at age 17 to study fashion at the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture. Just two years later, in 1955, his remarkable sketches were shown to Christian Dior, then the world’s reigning couturier, who hired him immediately.
Surprisingly soon thereafter, Dior publicly chose Saint Laurent as his successor, which sadly proved prescient when the fashion legend died unexpectedly, in 1957. A mere slip of a youth, the 21-year-old Saint Laurent was nevertheless up to the challenge. He shook the traditional couture clientele to its core with youthful silhouettes and styles like the A-line trapeze dress that hung with seeming effortlessness from the shoulders, the antithesis of the pinched waists and molded skirts that had been all the rage after the deprivations of World War II.
After a mandated spell in the torturous French military, Saint Laurent suffered a nervous breakdown and was dismissed by Dior in 1962. Out of the ashes rose the Age of Yves. With Pierre Bergé, his then-lover who became his lifelong business partner and friend, the designer founded Yves Saint Laurent YSL to encompass prêt-à-porter, or ready-to-wear. In 1966, they opened the first YSL Rive Gauche women’s boutique in Paris — Rive Gauche is French for “left bank” — followed soon thereafter by YSL Rive Gauche for men. Ready-to-wear materialized during a period of dynamic transformation and experimentation and came to dominate the Paris fashion scene. Saint Laurent had given birth to a global brand.
His revolutionary Mondrian mini dress from 1965 is a core element of his fashion biography. It is a prime example of how Saint Laurent, an avid art lover and collector, looked to painters, from Goya to Picasso, Ingres to Matisse, for inspiration.
With its pure lines and hues, Mondrian’s ground-breaking 1935 color-block painting Composition C transmutes beautifully into a dress that is highly valued by collectors of contemporary fashion and widely copied commercially to this day. The design is the epitome of Saint Laurent’s aesthetic, requiring a meticulous hand piecing of each color block so that, despite the body’s curves, the visual plane is as flat as a canvas when the garment is worn. Mondrian’s purity met its match in Saint Laurent.
“I am no longer concerned with sensation and innovation, but with the perfection of my style,” Saint Laurent said four years before retiring, in 2002. After a long period of ill health, he died at his home in Paris on June 1, 2008.
The vintage YSL Rive Gauche clothing for sale on 1stDibs includes evening dresses and gowns, jackets, shoes, handbags and other items.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: New York, NY
- Return PolicyThis item cannot be returned.
- Miriam Haskell Pearl Lacquer Heart EarringsBy Miriam HaskellLocated in New York, NYMiriam Haskell's oversized lacquered resin heart dangle earrings with classic pearl and clip back fittings. Excellent condition.Category
Vintage 1970s American Drop Earrings
- Miriam Haskell Rice Pearl Tassel EarringsBy Miriam HaskellLocated in New York, NYMiriam Haskell Rice Pearl Tassel Earrings with large faux baroque pearl on ear. Adjustable clip back fittings. 1950's USA. 1.75" x .75" wide.Category
Vintage 1950s American Drop Earrings
MaterialsGilt Metal
- Exceptional Long Victorian Cut Steel EarringsLocated in New York, NYRare Victorian Cut Steel Earrings in graduated hoop motifs with fringed edges. Exceptional quality, scale and design in original condition with scr...Category
Antique 1860s French Early Victorian Dangle Earrings
MaterialsCut Steel
- Givenchy Gilt and Black Modernist EarclipsBy GivenchyLocated in New York, NYGivenchy matte gold finish and black oval resin Modernist style logo pendant ear clips. Clip back fittings. 1980's France. Excellent Condition Length 2 1/16" Width 1" W 1"Category
Vintage 1980s French Modernist Drop Earrings
MaterialsGold Plate, Gilt Metal
- Miriam Haskell Elaborate Pearl and Gilt Long EarclipsBy Miriam HaskellLocated in New York, NYMiriam Haskell elaborate long earclips, of signature Russian Gilt and faux baroque and round pearls .Decorated with gilt flowerheads and leaf detailed filigrees, hand wired and set ...Category
Vintage 1950s American Drop Earrings
MaterialsGold Plate, Gilt Metal
- Miriam Haskell Gilt Filigree Cap and Pearl EarringsBy Miriam HaskellLocated in New York, NYMiriam Haskell gilt filigree cap and faux pearl earrings accented with topaz pastes. Adjustable clip back fittings all set in signature Russian gilt metal. 2.25" x 1". 1950's USA. ...Category
Vintage 1950s American Drop Earrings
MaterialsGilt Metal
- Pearl Duo EarringsBy Michelle Massoura Fine JewelleryLocated in Nicosia, CYOur Pearl Duo Earrings are made by hand in 18Karat Yellow Gold and feature a pair of round mini pearls that are strung with unique baroque shaped pearls. Due to the nature of the bar...Category
2010s European Contemporary Drop Earrings
MaterialsPearl, 18k Gold
- 4ct Light Pink Pear Diamond Drop EarringsLocated in New York, NY2.02 and 2.22 Carat Center Diamonds Light Pink Pear Shapes VS1 and VS2 0.42 Carats of Surrounding Pink Diamonds Excellent + Very Good cutting Set in 18k White Gold with 14k Rose Gold...Category
2010s Drop Earrings
MaterialsDiamond, Pink Diamond, Rose Gold
- "Costis" Precious Beehive Collection Drop Earrings - Blue Sapphires 3.86 ctsLocated in Athens, GR"Costis" Precious Beehive Collection Drop Earrings - Blue Sapphires 3.86 carats. 18K White Gold, with a total of 3.86 carats of excellent quality two pieces Blue Sapphires - an exam...Category
2010s Italian Modern Drop Earrings
MaterialsDiamond, Blue Sapphire, 18k Gold
- Antique 9ct Rose Gold & Silver Pool of Light EarringsLocated in Brighton, GBAntique “Pool of Light” Earrings 9ct Rose Gold & Silver Circa 1920’s Lovely Rock Crystal Drop Earrings. Set in Silver Casings- Wrapped Around Each Or...Category
Early 20th Century English Drop Earrings
Materials9k Gold, Rose Gold, Silver
- Tiffany Co Victoria Drop earrings mixed clusterBy Tiffany & Co.Located in New York, NYTiffany Co Victoria Mixed Cluster Earrings Platinum with Diamonds Marquise diamonds approx. 1.67 ctw Pear-shape diamonds , approx. 1.48 ctw Rou...Category
2010s European Modern Drop Earrings
MaterialsDiamond, Platinum
- chanel pearl lozenge CC drop earrings 1980sBy ChanelLocated in Wilmslow, GBDrop dead gorgeous chanel pearl lozenge drops. Hailing from the never-to-be-repeated era of Lagerfeld and Castellane and oozing magical nostalgia of the 1980s. Featuring a hallmark l...Category
Vintage 1980s Drop Earrings