Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche White and Black Skirt
About the Item
- Designer:
- Brand:
- Dimensions:Length: 21 in (53.34 cm)Marked Size: 42 (EU)Waist: 32 in (81.28 cm)
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Condition:Faint pink mark on the side seam.
- Seller Location:London, GB
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU44237712272
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: London, United Kingdom
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 14 days of delivery.
- Vintage Yves Saint Laurent White Cotton SkirtBy Yves Saint LaurentLocated in London, GBA wonderful white skirt for Fall, by Yves Saint Laurent, variation line. The skirt is in a thick white cotton, and has a wide waistband, zip opening on the left hand side and a pocke...Category
1980s French Skirts
- Vintage Etro Vintage Silk SkirtBy EtroLocated in London, GBA pretty boho silk skirt by Etro Vintage. The skirt is in a pretty print with yellow, pinks,greens and browns,It has a drawstring waist with a pink silk tie and is fully lined in a m...Category
1970s Italian Skirts
- Autumn Print Vintage SkirtLocated in London, GBA lovely skirt for Autumn/Fall The skirt is made of a heavy cotton, with a rust colour background and blue and yellow design. It has an elasticated waist, and so can fit a waist from...Category
1970s Unknown Skirts
- Vintage Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche Wrap Over SkirtBy Yves Saint Laurent Rive GaucheLocated in London, GBA great vintage skirt for Fall from Yves Saint Laurent., Rive Gauche line.Category
1970s French Skirts
- Vintage Brown and White Stripe SkirtLocated in London, GBA chic vintage brown and white stripe skirt, in a boucle like fabric. The skirt has a central back zip, and is unlined.Category
1970s British Skirts
- Vintage Jean Muir Suede SkirtBy Jean MuirLocated in London, GBA pretty vintage suede skirt by Jean Muir , Studio line. The skirt is unlined with a side zip opening.Category
1980s Unknown Skirts
- Yves Saint Laurent by Tom Ford SS-02 Cotton Laced Safari Skirt with Leopard TrimBy Tom Ford for Yves Saint Laurent, Yves Saint Laurent Rive GaucheLocated in Brussels, BEThe sexy pencil skirt was a piece that Carine Roitfeld, Tom Ford’s longtime stylist and former Vogue Paris editor-in-chief, made quite popular in the early noughties. Roitfeld was obsessed with the rigor and discipline of uniforms, but she kept looking for ways to add eroticism to strictly tailored clothes. This military-inspired skirt -with its sensual trim of leopard print chiffon- was an obvious choice for her and hasn’t lost any of its relevance. This is a version of skirt Look 2 as seen on the runway spring/summer 2002, ready-to-wear, model Rie Rasmussen 100% cotton in savana Leopard trim...Category
Early 2000s Italian Pencil Skirts
- VINTAGE 1970’S MISSONI wool tweed A-Line Skirt - Never been WornBy MissoniLocated in COLLINGWOOD, AUVintage MISSONI Wool tweed skirt from the 1970's. Never been Worn. With original tag. Beautiful tweed with cumberband waist. Size 40 Italian, Small. Made in Italy. Colour - beig...Category
1970s Italian A-Line Skirts
- CHRISTIAN DIOR dusty rose silk 2019 GRADIENT MIDI Skirt 38 SBy Christian DiorLocated in Zürich, CH100% authentic Christian Dior 2019 gradient asymmetric skirt in dusty rose silk (100%). Opens with a concealed zipper and a hook at the side. Unlined. Has been worn once and is in vi...Category
2010s A-Line Skirts
- ETRO red viscose PAISLEY CREPE MAXI Skirt 42 MBy EtroLocated in Zürich, CH100% authentic Etro a-line skirt in red, black, mustard and off-white viscose (65%) and silk (35%). Features a paisley print. Opens with a concealed zipper and a hook at the back. Un...Category
2010s A-Line Skirts
- CHANEL multicolored cotton 2019 19A NEW YORK GRAFFITI MIDI Skirt 38 SBy ChanelLocated in Zürich, CH100% authentic Chanel 2019 New York graffiti print flared cotton (100%) midi skirt in orange, black, green, turquoise, blue, yellow and red. The plea...Category
2010s Pencil Skirts
- MISSONI brown & pink viscose FRINGED SIDE TIE MIDI KNIT Skirt 46 XLBy MissoniLocated in Zürich, CH100% authentic Missoni side-tie knit skirt in chocolate brown and multicolor viscose (64%) and cupro ( 23%) and polyester. Features long fringes along the ...Category
2010s Pencil Skirts