Yves Saint Laurent Black Velvet Wrap Dress
View Similar Items
Yves Saint Laurent Black Velvet Wrap Dress
About the Item
- Designer:
- Dimensions:Marked Size: 38 (EU)Bust: 36 in (91.44 cm)Waist: 32 in (81.28 cm)
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Seller Location:Los Angeles, CA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU45933972
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.
- Vintage 1995 Versace Black Velvet Runway Evening GownBy VersaceLocated in Los Angeles, CAResurrection Vintage is excited to offer a vintage Versace black velvet evening gown featuring a draped chiffon inset, deep v-neck, and sculpted back panel. Versace Size S or 38 M...Category
1990s Italian Evening Dresses and Gowns
- Vintage Moschino Italian Flag "Fake" Glass Bead DressBy MoschinoLocated in Los Angeles, CAResurrection Vintage is excited to offer a vintage Moschino by Franco Moschino black and white "Fake" text mini dress with a white graphic arrow and glass necklace collar. The decorative necklace features the colors of the Italian flag...Category
1980s Italian Evening Dresses and Gowns
- Moschino Couture Orange Moire Silk & Black Lace Trim DressBy Moschino CoutureLocated in Los Angeles, CAResurrection Vintage is excited to offer a vintage orange Moschino Couture by Franco Moschino cotton rayon blend mini dress: featuring moire faille fabric, black lace trim, and cente...Category
1990s Italian Cocktail Dresses
- Vintage Moschino Black Leather Skirt Suit with Gold Chain Tassels 1989By MoschinoLocated in Los Angeles, CAResurrection Vintage is excited to offer a vintage Moschino by Franco Moschino black leather motorcycle jacket and skirt. Both pieces feature gold thimbles with gold chains. Like new...Category
1980s Italian Skirt Suits
- Vintage Moschino Couture Navy & Red Big Dot DressBy Moschino CoutureLocated in Los Angeles, CAResurrection Vintage is excited to offer a vintage navy and red Moschino Couture by Franco Moschino rayon blend shift mini dress: featuring navy and red insets, "Sorry, these dots ar...Category
1990s Italian Evening Dresses and Gowns
- Vintage Moschino Couture 1993/94 Bustier & Skirt EnsembleBy Moschino CoutureLocated in Los Angeles, CAResurrection Vintage is excited to offer a vintage Moschino Couture "Wham!" ensemble by Franco Moschino that features a button front black wool bustier top with an adjustable back bu...Category
1990s Italian Suits, Outfits and Ensembles
- 1994MaisonMartinMargiela PlungingOpenChestSlinky BlackBiasRuchedHalter SlitDressBy Maison Martin MargielaLocated in Chicago, ILWith the original hand-sewn off-white unbranded rectangular label of Paris-based Maison Martin Margiela, this asymmetrical plunging v-neck black jersey pullover gown was designed in 1994 by Belgium fashion-designer-cum-artist Martin Margiela. In his early deconstruction style, it partly appears to be a ruched halter dress that is positioned on a bias to add curves to shape the waist, while its open overlapping wrap skirt enables ample draping on one side that conceals a high slit from the waist down. Recalling the construction found in two of Martin Margiela's seminal collections--both the upcycled-split 1950s ballgowns of Spring/Summer 1991 and the draped "Stockman" garments of Spring/Summer 1997--this stretch-viscose dress is likewise a bodice with a split skirt, while its 3/4-length sleeves can recall Margiela's famous "shouldered arm bands" if worn with protruding breasts fully exposed. The top has a wide deep gapping chest or back, along with the option to position the looped "halter" cord that hangs from the torso in one of several ways by pulling over the head. For example, if the dress is worn "backwards" with the brand label resting on the upper chest, the cord from the ruching that is positioned in back can be pulled overhead and under the arms, which can secure the front shoulders of the top by pulling the loop overhead again in the other direction to rest on the back of the neck--like the Martin Margiela Spring/Summer 1997 "Stockman evening dress" in the museum collection of TheMet (see our pic of its smaller open-front black halter and half skirt with the neck strap worn this way.) No doubt the buyer will try more creative ways, too! You may be inspired by our other listing for arguably one of Martin Margiela's best Artisanal Line 0 pieces--a couture body harness--that, like his fashion manifesto, enables endless repurposing of button-down tops to create a plunging v-neckline with a distinct rolled collar. The Italian-size 42 dress...Category
1990s Italian Aesthetic Evening Dresses
- Balenciaga NicolasGhesquiere SilkFlowerPrint StructuredShortSleeve BiasCutDressBy Balenciaga, Nicolas GhesquièreLocated in Chicago, ILWhile at Balenciaga in late 2007, Nicolas Ghesquiere designed this 100%-silk bias-cut paneled dress that explodes with a grey and pale-yellow flower print and features unique technic...Category
Early 2000s French Aesthetic Evening Dresses
- Alexander McQueen corset lace and chiffon cocktail dress, c. 2002By Alexander McQueenLocated in London, GBAn Alexander McQueen corset cocktail dress from the Autumn/Winter 2002 "SUPERCALIFRAGILISTIC" collection. The dress features a ruched bust with flutter cap-sleeves, lace-up detailing contouring the hips, boned bodice and spider-web like lace with dragonflies making appearances throughout. ‘Ryder on the Storm’: Winona Ryder...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Evening Dresses and Gowns
- Valentino US 8 Navy Lace Midi DressBy ValentinoLocated in Amman, JOValentino Navy lace midi dress. Additional information: Material: Polyester Features: Lace detailing Size: US 8 Overall Condition: Gently used Note: Minimum th...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Maxi Dress
$150 Sale Price45% Off - 1990s Louis Feraud Black Cerimony Floral Velvet Vintage Long DressBy Louis FeraudLocated in Brindisi, BtLouis Feraud vintage women dress. Black color, 100% polyester. Long model, floral applications in velvet, adjustable waist belt, collar with flou...Category
1990s German Evening Dresses
$1,147 Sale Price20% Off - Oscar de la Renta 1990's Red & Purple Satin & Velvet Color Block Dress-Size 8By Oscar De La RentaLocated in West Palm Beach, FLOscar de la Renta 1990's Red & Purple Color-Block Dress - 8. This dress is in excellent condition and is long sleeved. The top part is velvet and the ...Category
1990s American Evening Dresses and Gowns
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.