Yves Saint Laurent by Tom Ford FW-02 Silk Flared Hem Dress - Velvet Ribbon
About the Item
- Designer:
- Brand:
- Dimensions:Length: 42.52 in (108 cm)Marked Size: 38 (EU)Bust: 16.54 in (42 cm)Waist: 14.97 in (38 cm)Shoulder to Hem: 26.38 in (67 cm)
- Style:Tom Ford era (Of the Period)
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Condition:Not previously worn or owned item still carrying original tags. Excellent vintage condition.
- Seller Location:Brussels, BE
- Reference Number:
Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche
Visionary French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent was the first to launch a ready-to-wear label, YSL Rive Gauche Prêt-à-Porter. The inaugural Rive Gauche boutique — a modern shop in Paris’s bustling, bohemian Left Bank district — offered stylish garments and accessories that were intended to be affordable for a younger generation of fashion enthusiasts. The store featured Mies van der Rohe chairs and played host to actor Catherine Deneuve during its grand opening.
Saint Laurent pioneered “cross-design” in fashion, taking inspiration from street trends to modernize haute couture. He was the first couturier to open boutiques for both men and women. Using traditional menswear fabrics and designs for women, he 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 — Rive Gauche is French for “left bank” — followed soon thereafter by YSL Rive Gauche for men. Ready-to-wear materialized during a period of dynamic transformation and experimentation and came to dominate the Paris fashion scene. 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.
The vintage YSL Rive Gauche clothing for sale on 1stDibs includes evening dresses and gowns, jackets, shoes, handbags and other items.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Brussels, Belgium
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 3 days of delivery.
- Yves Saint Laurent by Tom Ford SS-2001 Strapless Bandage Mini DressBy Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche, Tom Ford for Yves Saint LaurentLocated in Brussels, BEA highlight from the Spring/summer 2001 YSL collection. This stretchy black strapless bandage mini dress with its wraparound belt that sculpt the waist ...Category
Early 2000s French Mini Dress
- Yves Saint Laurent by Tom Ford FW-2003 Higher Waist Skirt with Belt DetailingBy Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche, Tom Ford for Yves Saint LaurentLocated in Brussels, BEThis is reinterpretation of the infamous Tom Ford pencil skirt, with a nod to the elegance of the 1940s. Saint Laurent’s Spring/Summer 1971 Haute Couture collection channeled the loo...Category
Early 2000s Italian Pencil Skirts
- Yves Saint Laurent by Tom Ford FW-2001 Tailored Silhouette Cotton PantsBy Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche, Tom Ford for Yves Saint LaurentLocated in Brussels, BEElongating the female form has been one of Tom Ford’s key design trademarks since his arrival at the Florentine House of Gucci. He applied the same slimming and lengthening principle...Category
Early 2000s French Pants
- Dsquared2 FW-2009 Cotton Zip Detail Biker PantsBy Dsquared2Located in Brussels, BEBiker wear was all the rage during the Noughties, made popular by the female music bands who adopted menswear styles to show off their streetwise toughness. If the cargo pants had already become a hot item during the late 1990s, biker pants...Category
Early 2000s Italian Pants
- Antonio Berardi FW-2004 Silk Sleeveless Print DressBy Antonio BerardiLocated in Brussels, BEDespite being born in the UK, Antonio Berardi’s roots are Sicilian ones, explaining his love of drama and femininity. This gorgeous silk dress, which mixes a variety of prints and mo...Category
Early 2000s Italian Day Dresses
- JEAN PAUL GAULTIER SS03 COUTURE Wool Sequin Embroidered PantsBy Jean Paul GaultierLocated in Brussels, BEHollywood Glamour -and the decadent appeal of its Golden Age- are recurrent themes within Jean Paul Gaultier’s work and his men’s and women’s collections. These mannish pants, made o...Category
Early 2000s Italian Pants
- Adolfo Tropical Silk Jersey Strapless Dress with Half CapeletBy AdolfoLocated in New York, NYAdolfo strapless dress with bold green, indigo and white tropical floral print. Wonderfully tailored, with fitted bodice and draped open tulip front slit above the knee for movement...Category
Late 20th Century American Evening Dresses and Gowns
- Valentino Boutique Black Beaded Silk Chiffon Evening Gown Size US 6By ValentinoLocated in New York, NYLuxurious Valentino Boutique black silk evening gown with tiered ruffles, sweeping hemline and hand beaded and embroidered bodice. Two ruffles at bodice are hand beaded with tiny jet...Category
Late 20th Century Italian Evening Dresses and Gowns
- Badgley Mischka Beaded Black Silk Lace Evening Gown Size US 10By Badgley MischkaLocated in New York, NYBadgley Mischka glamorous black silk lace evening gown, size US 10. Gown features hand beaded and embroidered lace with glass jet beading, and neckline with glass jet beads along cu...Category
Late 20th Century American Evening Gowns
- SAINT LAURENT BY HEDI SLIMANE 2014 Black Leather Mini DressBy Saint Laurent, Hedi Slimane for Yves Saint LaurentLocated in Berlin, BEThe most incredible leather mini-dress by Saint Laurent from 2014, designed by Hedi Slimane. This exceptional sleeveless mini dress is made from a soft lamb leather and features gor...Category
2010s French Mini Dress
- Yves Saint Laurent Spring 1989 GownBy Yves Saint Laurent Rive GaucheLocated in Brooklyn, NYExquisite and unparalleled, behold this mesmerizing Yves Saint Laurent gold lamé gown from the esteemed Spring Summer 1989 collection. Del...Category
1980s Evening Dresses and Gowns
- Moschino Spring 2004 dressBy MoschinoLocated in Brooklyn, NYSuper cute Moschino black lingerie Spring 2004 dress with lace and hooks on bodice, and ruffles at the bottom as seen on the runway in a pink version. The d...Category
Early 2000s Evening Dresses and Gowns