79's Yves Saint Laurent White Dove's Print Dress
View Similar Items
79's Yves Saint Laurent White Dove's Print Dress
About the Item
- Designer:
- Brand:
- Dimensions:Marked Size: 8 (US)Bust: 38 in (96.52 cm)Waist: 28 in (71.12 cm)Hip: 42 in (106.68 cm)
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Material Notes:100 % Cotton
- Condition:Original YSL tag still attached.
- Seller Location:Hamburg, DE
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU97204880
Yves Saint Laurent
French 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, Saint Laurent 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.
- Vintage EMANUEL UNGARO Boutique 1980s DAISY Black Parallele PARIS Dress XS/SBy Emanuel UngaroLocated in Asheville, NCUngaro Boutique, Vintage 1980's, Sheer Cotton, Fully Lined, Belted, Straps Tie at Top, Five Round Buttons at Front, 2 Large Front Pockets, Daisy Floral Details on Top, Front and Bott...Category
1980s French Day Dresses
$584 Sale Price20% Off - Iconic Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche Olive Green Safari Tunic, 1968.By Yves Saint Laurent Rive GaucheLocated in New York, NYYves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche Olive Green Safari Tunic, 1968. Olive green cotton tunic features laces at the front with long cords that are run through metal grommets, to be worn op...Category
1960s French Tunics and Wrap Dresses
- c. 1967 Pierre Cardin Documented Dress MuseumBy Pierre CardinLocated in New York, NYc. 1967 Pierre Cardin Futuristic Dress Mini dress of navy wool jersey knit. The tubular mini dress has a rounded neckline and short sleeves. Red, sh...Category
1960s French Shift Dresses
- Ossie Clark Celia Birtwell Print Dress c. 1970s Worn by Julia RobertsLocated in New York, NYOssie Clark Celia Birtwell Printed Dress c. 1970s Worn by Julia Roberts in 1997 Conspiracy Theory; Empire dress with self ties at neckline a...Category
1970s British Empire Waist Dresses
- S/S 1990 Thierry Mugler Black and Green Sculptural DressBy Thierry MuglerLocated in New York, NYS/S 1990 Thierry Mugler Black Cotton Dress with Layered, Tiered Skirt Panels Backed with Acid Green Cotton; Fitted Bodice with Adjustable Straps; Self Belt w...Category
1990s French Cocktail Dresses
- Jean Paul Gaultier Classique Dress 1990's Vintage Tribal Aztec Wrap DressBy Jean Paul Gaultier ClassiqueLocated in London, GBJean Paul Gaultier Classique Dress 1990's Vintage Tribal Aztec Tattoo Print Wrap Dress Lightweight Stretchy Silky Mesh Material 100% Authentic SIZE: M ACTUAL MEASUREMENTS: S...Category
1990s Tunics and Wrap 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.