Yves Saint Laurent Tom Ford Black Runway Dress Rose Flower Bat Bell Sleeves
About the Item
- Designer:
- Brand:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Berlin, DE
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU2727215620912
Yves 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.
Browse an extraordinary collection of vintage Yves Saint Laurent evening dresses, shirts, handbags and other clothing and accessories today on 1stDibs.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Berlin, Germany
- Return PolicyThis item cannot be returned.
- Jean Paul Gaultier Dress Mesh Black Sheer Red Writing Calligraphy 90s VintageBy Jean Paul GaultierLocated in Berlin, BEStunning Iconic Jean Paul Gaultier Dress. Black semi sheer mesh dress with long sleeves and double layered skirtpart. Deep red French writing on the front. This is typical iconic la...Category
1990s Italian Evening Dresses and Gowns
- GUCCI Cape Showstopper Silk Velvet Gorgeous Gold Rhinestone Embellishment JacketBy GucciLocated in Berlin, BEFather, Son and House of Gucci <3 So obsessed with this gorgeous SHOWSTOPPER piece! Rare and so beautiful GUCCI silk velvet Cape, new with tag. Dark...Category
2010s Italian Coats and Outerwear
- Gorgeous Iconic Thierry Mugler Gown SS1999 Evening Dress Silver Lucite DetailsBy Thierry MuglerLocated in Berlin, BEMuseum worthy collectors piece. Absolutely gorgeous documented Thierry Mugler dress, Spring Summer 1999 Collection. Documented on the runway as well as on the iconic portrait of Man...Category
1990s French Evening Dresses and Gowns
- Holy Grail Thierry Mugler Dress Iman SS 1986 Runway DocumentedBy Thierry MuglerLocated in Berlin, BEHoly Grail Collectors Piece. Breathtaking Thierry Mugler Dress, Spring Summer Collection 1986. Worn by the gorgeous Iman on the Runway and also for the Cam...Category
1980s French Day Dresses
- Runway Mugler FW 2000 Collection Black Tunic Dress Asymmetric Shoulder RemovableBy MuglerLocated in Berlin, BEAmazing piecce featured on the runway fashioinshow MUGLER Fall 2000 Collection. Black tunic blouse or mini dress with removable sleeve. You can eitehr...Category
Early 2000s European Day Dresses
- Devine Thierry Mugler Runway Dress Goddess Black Semi Sheer Evening GownBy Thierry MuglerLocated in Berlin, BEThierry Mugler Spring Summer 2000 Collection. This Runway documented piece is so devine. Long semi sheer evening gown with the most amazing movemen...Category
Early 2000s French Evening Dresses and Gowns
- F/2012 look # 6 NEW VERSACE MACRAME GOTHIC CROSS COCKTAIL SILK DRESS 38 - 2By VersaceLocated in Montgomery, TXVERSACE Actual Runway Samole Fall/Winter 2012 Look # 6 Macrame Gothic Cross Cocktail Dress This long sleeve, turtle neck cocktail dress features an allover macrame Gothic cross...Category
2010s Italian Cocktail Dresses
- The little black dress by Chanel black and white silk Sculpted figureLocated in Bilbao, ESAbsence of vulgarity was central to Chanel’s definition of luxury, a view formed during her impoverished early life. Born in 1883 in Saumur, France, as Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, she was just 12 years old when her mother died and her itinerant father put her in a home for orphaned girls run by a local convent. She learned to sew and, upon moving to Moulins six years later, became a seamstress. She also sang in nightclubs, earning the sobriquet “Coco,” an allusion to a popular song of the time. Beautiful, one of a kind vintage silk dress and jacket for everyday ware as a coktail dress...Category
1990s Aesthetic Evening Dresses
- Thierry Mugler Strapless Black Satin Gown, c.1980sBy Thierry MuglerLocated in New York, NYThierry Mugler Strapless Black Satin Gown, c.1980s Thierry Mugler Strapless Black Satin Gown featuring asymmetrical, gathered corseted bodice with rhi...Category
1980s French Aesthetic Evening Dresses
- Vintage Black Cocktail Dress with Floral Applique.Located in London, GBA chic vintage black cocktail dress , by 'styled by H Tromp for Melonique Originals Ltd. The dress is in a ribbed fabric with a v backline...Category
1950s Unknown Evening Dresses and Gowns
- NAEEM KANH Black Jersey with Lace Evening Gown Size 8By Naeem KhanLocated in Los Angeles, CAThis Nah Kanh gown is composed of a black jersey and features a lace bodice with nude tone base. There is a center back gold hue zipper. In excellent condition, with original tags. ...Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Evening Gowns
- Saint Laurent opt art wraparound embossed silk dress with black dots, circa 1980By Yves Saint Laurent Rive GaucheLocated in London, GBThis elegance and feminine Saint Laurent dress is constructed from embossed silk dress with black polka dots on white background. Featuring a V-neckline with gathered shoulders and ...Category
1980s French Evening Dresses
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.
Quiet Luxury May Be Trending, but These Famous Interiors Prove That Quality and Quirk Endure
Because truly timeless design requires personal vision, transcendent taste, real fortitude and top-notch objects, even if the wider world hasn’t caught on yet.