F/W 2004 Yves Saint Laurent by Tom Ford Chinoiserie Brocade Black Skirt
About the Item
- Designer:
- Brand:
- Dimensions:Marked Size: 42FR (EU)
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. Light wear from age and use throughout.
- Seller Location:West Hollywood, CA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU2388220751692
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: West Hollywood, CA
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 1 day of delivery.
- NWT S/S 2002 Dolce & Gabbana Runway Blue Green Satin Woven Ribbon Mini Skirt Y2KBy Dolce & GabbanaLocated in West Hollywood, CAPresenting a stunning green and blue satin ribbon interlaced mini skirt designed by Dolce & Gabbana for their Spring/Summer 2002 collection. This gorgeous mini skirt debuted as part of look 36 on Anouck Lepère and was worn by Britney Spears to the Madrid premiere of her movie, Crossroads, and by Kylie Minogue...Category
Early 2000s Italian Pencil Skirts
- F/W 1999 Dolce & Gabbana Runway Mongolian Lamb Tiered Fur Sheer Black SkirtBy Dolce & GabbanaLocated in West Hollywood, CAPresenting a black Mongolian lamb Dolce and Gabana maxi skirt. From the Fall/Winter 1999 collection, this fabulous skirt debuted on the season's runway, modeled by Gisele Bündchen. C...Category
1990s Italian Pencil Skirts
- Late 1990s Dolce & Gabbana Beige Distressed Denim Mid-Length SkirtBy Dolce & GabbanaLocated in West Hollywood, CAPresenting a fabulous beige distressed denim Dolce and Gabbana skirt. From the late 1990s, this vintage midi skirt is purposefully distressed and is...Category
1990s Skirts
- F/W 1991 Oscar de La Renta Runway Pink Green Tartan Fringe Wrap Pencil SkirtBy Oscar De La RentaLocated in West Hollywood, CAPresenting a fabulous pink and green Oscar de la Renta tartan wrap skirt. From the Fall/Winter 1991 collection, this fabulous skirt debuted o...Category
1990s American Wrap Skirts
- F/W 1996 Gucci by Tom Ford Runway Black Suede Fur Wrap Maxi Slit SkirtBy Gucci, Tom Ford for GucciLocated in West Hollywood, CAPresenting an incredible black suede Gucci maxi wrap skirt, designed by Tom Ford. From the Fall/Winter 1996 collection, this skirt debuted on the season's runway as part of look 37, ...Category
1990s Italian Wrap Skirts
- NWT S/S 2003 Roberto Cavalli Baroque Print Gold Glitter Maxi Flare Bodycon SkirtBy Roberto CavalliLocated in West Hollywood, CAPresenting a fabulous baroque print Roberto Cavalli high-waisted maxi skirt. From the Spring/Summer 2003 collection, this skirt depicts a baroque-style room with musical instruments....Category
Early 2000s Italian Flare Skirts
- Giorgio Armani Black Rayon Crepe Skirt Size EU40 / US 6By Giorgio Armani Le CollezioniLocated in New York, NYGiorgio Armani Le Collezioni flirty little black skirt with draped open front that flows from fitted waistband. Fabric is a soft rayon ble...Category
1990s Italian Skirts
- Joseph Belted Sash Black Skirt Size UK LBy JosephLocated in New York, NYThis is a skirt full of delightful surprises. It moves with you. Hidden slits and flaps, wrapped belted waist gives a variety of options for styling. The long sash belt allows for...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Bulgarian Skirts
- Wolfgang Joop for WUNDERKIND SS-2008 Silk Mix Layered Printed SkirtLocated in Brussels, BEWUNDERKIND by Wolfgang Joop Wolfgang Joop’s penchant for the artistic and the whimsical was clear in the choices he made for his high-end brand Wunderkind, which he launched in 2003....Category
Early 2000s Italian Skirts
- 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 SS-2002 Silk/Rayon Skirt with Pocket DetailingBy Tom Ford for Yves Saint Laurent, Yves Saint Laurent Rive GaucheLocated in Brussels, BEStraight skirts are a Saint Laurent staple and they were famously worn with broad shouldered blazers or pussy-bow blouses from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. This unusual red ski...Category
Early 2000s Italian Skirts
- John Galliano SS-2011 Wool Ruffled Hem Knee Length SkirtBy John GallianoLocated in Brussels, BEThe genius of John Galliano was his ability to make even the most traditional shapes alluring and seductive, adding his own personal twist to classical dressing. This stylish knee le...Category
2010s French Skirts