Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche Purple & Gold Flecks Snake Print 2 Pc. Pant Set
View Similar Items
Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche Purple & Gold Flecks Snake Print 2 Pc. Pant Set
About the Item
- Designer:
- Brand:
- Dimensions:Marked Size: 40 (EU)Bust: 36 in (91.44 cm)Hip: 36 in (91.44 cm)Shoulder to Hem: 25 in (63.5 cm)
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Seller Location:Palm Beach, FL
- Reference Number:Seller: 10921-251stDibs: LU7689313402
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.
- 1970S Red, White & Blue Polyester Double Knit Tunic Wild Plaid Bell Bottom PantLocated in New York, NY1970S Red, White & Blue Polyester Double Knit Tunic Wild Plaid Bell Bottom Pants Ensemble Gucci StyleCategory
1970s Jumpsuits
- 1970S Blue & Green Nylon Austrian Mod Ski Jacket Pants EnsembleLocated in New York, NY1970S Blue & Green Nylon Austrian Mod Ski Jacket Pants EnsembleCategory
1970s Twin Sets
- 1950s Grey Wool Three-Piece SetLocated in San Francisco, CA1950s grey cashmere/wool blend three-piece set including the full circle skirt with leather and wool tapers with button accents. The copped jacket has three-quarter length cuffed sle...Category
1950s Suits, Outfits and Ensembles
- Azzedine Alaia 1990's Vintage Legging Pants & Bodysuit Top 2 Piece Set EnsembleBy Azzedine AlaïaLocated in Naples, FLAzzedine Alaia 1990's Vintage Bodycon Blue Leggings Pants & Bodysuit Top 2 Piece Set Ensemble XS/S Excellent Condition. Please note the size tag of the pants indicates size XS and t...Category
1990s Suits, Outfits and Ensembles
- Vintage Chanel Creations Textured Purple Wool Skirt Suit 1970sBy ChanelLocated in West Palm Beach, FLVintage Chanel Creations purple wool skirt suit with purple & gold lion head buttons at the front & cuffs, gold chain hem in the lining. Mid weight waffle textured wool jacket, with ...Category
1970s French Skirt Suits
- Judith Ann Creations Purple & Blue Beaded Sequin 2pc Dress with Bird DesignBy Judith Ann CreationsLocated in Portland, ORThis is a stunning beaded and sequin 2 piece dress from Judith Ann Creations. The outfit includes a gorgeous silk lined long sleeve blouse with a beautiful bird motif. and a silk lin...Category
1980s Indian Evening Dresses