1980's Yves Saint Laurent Cotton Paisley Peasant Dress
View Similar Items
1980's Yves Saint Laurent Cotton Paisley Peasant Dress
About the Item
- Designer:
- Brand:
- Dimensions:Marked Size: 34 (EU)
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Los Angeles, CA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU1693602193
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.
- John Galliano Vintage F/W 2003 Cherry and Leopard Print DressBy John GallianoLocated in London, GBWe are excited to present this John Galliano Fall Winter 2003 cherry and leopard print dress. Features cross back detail with adjustable straps, v-neckline, frill detail on straps an...Category
Early 2000s French Mini Dresses
- Jean Paul Gaultier Vintage S/S 1998 Frida Kahlo DressBy Jean Paul GaultierLocated in London, GBJean Paul Gaultier Spring Summer 1998 Frida Kahlo sleeveless dress. Featuring zig-zag cut seams, black mesh, racer back and asymmetric maxi length. In excellent vintage condition. Au...Category
1990s French Maxi Dresses
- Vintage Givenchy Couture Numbered 1970s Chocolate Brown Feathered Chiffon GownBy GivenchyLocated in San Diego, CAAmazing S/S 1971 GIVENCHY couture numbered chocolate brown silk chiffon evening dress! This early 70s dress is extremely well made. Features a nude illusion tailored bodice with semi...Category
1970s French Evening Gowns
- 1960s Malcolm Starr Green Pink Metallic Floral Print DressBy Malcolm StarrLocated in Beverly Hills, CA1960s Malcolm Starr Gown in Green, Pink, gold and blue print sleeveless gown. Perfect for wedding or cocktail event . Waist is encrusted with multi color jeweled. Bust: 34” / waist ...Category
1960s American Evening Gowns
- 1970s Geoffrey Beene Wool Shift With a TwistBy Geoffrey BeeneLocated in Port Hope, ONIt is a simple shift with wood buttons on the front and at the cuffs, and then you look at the back and you see two defined pleated panel with a quarter trim a third of the way down ...Category
1970s American Shift Dresses
- Metallic Gold and Silver Brocade 1970s Maxi Dress Caftan, Evening Gown KaftanLocated in North Hollywood, CAEvening or interior metallic gold brocade dress kaftan with silver and gold trim. Hand-made ceremonial caftan from North Africa, Morocco. Vintage exotic 1970s silver metallic brocade...Category
Late 20th Century Moroccan Caftans
$680 Sale Price20% Off
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.