Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche Bronze Toned Drop Earrings
About the Item
- Creator:
- Metal:
- Dimensions:Width: 2 in (50.8 mm)Length: 3.25 in (82.55 mm)
- Style:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:20th century
- Condition:
- Seller Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU443899861
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.
- Yves Saint Laurent Faux Tortoise PendentBy Yves Saint LaurentLocated in New York, NYYves Saint Laurent, RIve Gauche, faux tortoise pendent, having carved gold beads and carved faux tortoise beads on terra cotta toned fine twisted cord. Tassels are at the back with a...Category
Vintage 1980s French Pendant Necklaces
MaterialsBase Metal
- Yves Saint Laurent Circle NecklaceBy Yves Saint LaurentLocated in New York, NYYves Saint Laurent, gold tone, necklace having 5 dangling, filigree discs hanging off a demi choker of fluted balls that are strung on a chain.Category
Vintage 1980s French Modern Chain Necklaces
- Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche Enamel and Rhinestone "Hearts" PendentBy Yves Saint Laurent Rive GaucheLocated in New York, NYYves Saint Laurent " hearts" motif pendent, composed of four red enamel hearts, surrounding a faceted crystal dark stone with four tear shaped rhinestones encased in gold between eac...Category
Vintage 1980s French Pendant Necklaces
MaterialsOther, Base Metal, Enamel
- Yves Saint Laurent Jeweled CuffBy Yves Saint LaurentLocated in New York, NYYves Saint Laurent, gold tone, textured wide cuff, composed of tiny, raised, gold balls with clusters of rhinestones.Category
1990s French Cuff Bracelets
MaterialsBase Metal
- FLOWEN Sterling Silver Aoda Studs and EarJackets in 18k Gold and Black DiamondsBy FlowenLocated in Los Angeles, CAThe AODA Studs and Ear Jacket Earrings are intended to recall fossils or futuristic organisms. The intricate geometry radiates a 3 dimensional suspended sculpture when worn. These vi...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Contemporary Stud Earrings
MaterialsBlack Diamond, Gold Plate, Sterling Silver, 18k Gold
- 18KT White and Rose Gold Bouquet Bow Diamond Flower EarringsBy Lili JewelryLocated in New York, NY18KT white and rose gold bouquet bow diamond flower earrings . lever back style .2 LILY CUT ® flower shape diamond H color VS SI clarity 0.46 cts . addition...Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Artisan Drop Earrings
MaterialsDiamond, 18k Gold
- Boulder Opal, Emerald and Lapis EarringsBy Tinguely BijouxLocated in Boston, MAGorgeous trio of custom cut Boulder Opal, sliced Emerald and Afghani Lapis Lazuli set in 18 karat gold. Handmade bezels shaped in ancient lost wax casting method. One of a kind.Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Contemporary Drop Earrings
MaterialsEmerald, Lapis Lazuli, Opal, 18k Gold
- Lapis Lazuli EarringsBy Tinguely BijouxLocated in Boston, MAFabulous bezel set three drop Lapis Lazuli earrings set in solid 18 karat gold. Handmade in ancient lost wax casting method. One of a kind.Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Contemporary Drop Earrings
MaterialsLapis Lazuli, 18k Gold, Yellow Gold
- 18 Karat Gold Shield Drop EarringsBy Tinguely BijouxLocated in Boston, MAHandmade delicate kinetic gold drop earrings in solid 18 karat gold. Also available in silver.Category
2010s American Contemporary Drop Earrings
Materials18k Gold
- Emerald and Black Opal Drop Earring 18 Karat GoldBy Tinguely BijouxLocated in Boston, MAThe bright Lightning Ridge crystal black opal has a clear, wide light spectrum that complements the kelly green of the rose-faceted emerald. Set in an 18 karat yellow gold. Model wea...Category
2010s American Contemporary Dangle Earrings
Materials18k Gold