Vintage Yves Saint Laurent Umbrella "Showers of Love" (Deluge Amour)
View Similar Items
Vintage Yves Saint Laurent Umbrella "Showers of Love" (Deluge Amour)
About the Item
- Designer:
- Brand:
- Place of Origin:France
- Period:
- Condition:
- Seller Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:Seller: M1stDibs: LU46185584
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.
- Elaborate Victorian Tortoise shell CombLocated in New York, NYElaborate Victorian Tortoise shell Comb from the mid 19th Century. Carving is exceptional with motifs undercut from a solid piece of tortoiseshell...Category
1860s French Hats
- Lovely Tortoise Pique Comb VictorianLocated in New York, NYTortoise Pique Comb Victorian with gold dot decoration. The comb is carved with a floral cutwork border with a genuine gold dotted pattern inlaid diagonally across. 1870's France. Ex...Category
1870s French Hats
- Blond Celluloid Art Nouveau CombLocated in New York, NYBlond celluloid (replicating Horn) Art Nouveau Comb with 3 gilt filigree applications and rose paste stones from the turn of the 20th Century. Simple ...Category
Early 20th Century French Hats
- Elaborate French Art Deco Paste CombLocated in New York, NYFine French Art Deco Paste Comb made in France in the 1930's. Clear celluloid is overlaid with a vibrant turquoise celluloid which is incised an...Category
1930s French Hats
- Pair of Alligator Hair BandsLocated in New York, NYPair of Alligator Hair Bands lined in leather, retailed by Saks Fifth Ave, 1980's. Deep green and black colorations, slightly padded and topstitched. 14.5" x 1". Domestic Sales Only.Category
1980s Unknown Hats
- Yves Saint Laurent Green Twill Fisherman's HatBy Alber ElbazLocated in New York, NYYves Saint Laurent green cotton twill Fisherman's Hat with topstitched detailing throughout brim. A gallic interpretation where the brim is slightly wider in back as the original st...Category
Early 2000s French Hats
- Hermes Red Cashmere Calvi Bucket Hat Size 57By HermèsLocated in Dubai, Al Qouz 2The use of cashmere, the red hue, and the metal brand accent come together to create this Hermes hat. A hat like this one is a style essential that will elevate your accessory game a...Category
2010s French Hats
- 1960 Christian Dior By Marc Bohan Black Feather & Quill Structured Cocktail HatBy Christian Dior, Marc BohanLocated in Gresham, ORA gorgeous 1960s Christian Dior hat by Marc Bohan: A structured turban-style cocktail hat covered in iridescent blue pheasant feathers is enhanced by cri...Category
1960s French Hats
- 1960 Mr. John Jr. Cobalt Blue Velvet Figural Turban HatBy Mr. JohnLocated in Gresham, ORA beautiful 1960s Mr. John Jr. turban hat in a pleated cobalt blue base with figured multicolor velvet. Size medium.Category
1960s American Hats
- Avant Garde Metallic Snakeskin Turban c 1960Located in University City, MOAvant-garde Metallic snakeskin turban c 1960 The unique turban is designed with bands of exotic metallic snakeskin The snakeskin bands range from gold to pewter tone metallic ...Category
1960s Unknown Hats
$145 Sale Price25% Off - Hermes Shearling Lambskin Bucket Hat 59 NewBy HermèsLocated in Miami, FLMightychic offers an Hermes Black Shearling bucket hat. Lambskin with stamped abstract black on black design and Shearling inside. Hermes tag ins...Category
21st Century and Contemporary French Hats
- Maison Michel Suede Lamb Leather BeretBy Maison MichelLocated in Paris, FRMust-Have. This beret is unisex in smooth suede lamb leather, black in color. In very good used condition. Made In France. Size L. Will be delivered in its transparent box...Category
2010s French Hats
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.