Saint Laurent Cassandra Top Handle Bag Crocodile Embossed Leather Medium
View Similar Items
Saint Laurent Cassandra Top Handle Bag Crocodile Embossed Leather Medium
About the Item
- Designer:
- Dimensions:Height: 8 in (20.32 cm)Width: 9.5 in (24.13 cm)Depth: 4.5 in (11.43 cm)
- Period:
- Material Notes:Exterior Material: Leather Exterior Color: Black Interior Material: Leather Interior Color: Black
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. Condition: Very good. Odor in interior. Minor wear on base corners, scuffs and marks in interior, scratches on hardware.
- Seller Location:NY, NY
- Reference Number:Seller: 101914/11stDibs: LU84214730302
Saint Laurent
French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent pioneered “cross-design” in fashion, taking inspiration from street trends to modernize haute couture.
Saint Laurent was the first to launch a ready-to-wear label, YSL Rive Gauche Prêt-à-Porter. He was the first couturier to open boutiques for both men and women. Using traditional menswear fabrics and designs for women, Saint Laurent 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, followed soon thereafter by YSL Rive Gauche for men. 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. Under creative director Hedi Slimane, the house’s ready-to-wear collection was rebranded as Saint Laurent in 2012.
Browse an extraordinary collection of vintage Saint Laurent evening dresses, shirts, handbags and other clothing and accessories today on 1stDibs.
- Pablo Picasso Vintage Bi Color Kelly Flap BagBy Pablo PicassoLocated in Fort Lauderdale, FLThe Vintage Kelly Flap style bag from Pablo Picassi is one of the famed luxury goods house's most coveted and exclusive items. This flap bag is made of blac...Category
1980s Italian Top Handle Bags
- Gucci Zumi Shibuya Black and Tan Medium Top Handle BagBy GucciLocated in Philadelphia, PAGucci Zumi Shibuya Black and Tan Medium Top Handle Bag in very good condition. Black and tan diagonal stripe leather with silver and gold hardware, black le...Category
2010s Top Handle Bags
- HERMES Escapade Black Chevre Leather Palladium Hardware HandbagBy HermèsLocated in Holland, PAHERMES BLACK CHEVRE LEATHER ESCAPADE HANDBAG *Please note, color may not be fully representative of handbag based on monitor and lighting. This handbag is black. This bag is in A-, excellent condition. Features chevre leather exterior and smooth interior. Slit pocket interior. Exterior: Peeling slightly on one corner. Interior: Slight smoke smell. Stamps: We cannot find the stamp but button is stamped Hermes with Hermes Made in France stamps...Category
1990s French Top Handle Bags
- Chanel 1992 Vintage Black Diamond Quilted Work Laptop Briefcase BagBy ChanelLocated in Miami, FLChanel Vintage Black Diamond Quilted Work Laptop Briefcase Bag circa 1992 black lambskin diamond quilting single flat top handle front flap closure push-lock fastening main compart...Category
1990s Italian Briefcases and Attachés
- CHRISTIAN DIOR Black Crocodile BagBy Christian DiorLocated in New York, NYChristian Dior Black Crocodile Lady Bag with Gold Hardware 100% Authentic Christian Dior Bag COLOR: Black MATERIAL: Crocodile HARDWARE: Gold ORIGI...Category
21st Century and Contemporary French Top Handle Bags
- RALPH LAUREN Matte Deep Purple Alligator Crocodile Ricky BagBy Ralph LaurenLocated in New York, NYMatte Deep Purple Alligator Ricky Bag, Ralph Lauren. 100% Authentic Ralph Lauren Ricky Bag COLOR: Deep Purple MATERIAL: Matte Alligator HARDWARE:...Category
21st Century and Contemporary French Top Handle Bags
Recently Viewed
View AllRead More
How to Spot a Fake YSL Bag
Counterfeiters know that savvy fashionistas cherish YSL bags. Learn how to tell if yours is the real deal. Of course, you don't have to worry about that on 1stDibs, where every seller is highly vetted.
This Golden Saint Laurent Handbag Feels Like a Disco-Era Throwback (in the Best Way Possible)
If you're looking for an accessory that brings the party, this is it.