Vintage YSL Yves Saint Laurent Red Velvet Evening Drawstring Pouch Bag
View Similar Items
Vintage YSL Yves Saint Laurent Red Velvet Evening Drawstring Pouch Bag
About the Item
- Designer:
- Brand:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Seller Location:Toronto, CA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU203408752
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.
- Dior Multicolor Studded Canvas and Leather Bohemian Inspired Shoulder StrapBy Christian DiorLocated in Dubai, Al Qouz 2Dior brings you this super-chic shoulder strap that you can flaunt with your great collection of handbags. The strap is made from studded canvas & leather and is complete with two me...Category
2010s Italian Wallets and Small Accessories
- Chanel Gold Textured Leather Wild Stich Weekender BagBy ChanelLocated in Dubai, Al Qouz 2This Chanel weekender bag is an example of the brand's fine designs that are skillfully crafted to project a classic charm. It is a functional creation with an elevating appeal. Inc...Category
2010s Italian Duffel Bags and Carry-On Bags
- Stella McCartney Off White Canvas and Faux Leather Stella Logo ToteBy Stella McCartneyLocated in Dubai, Al Qouz 2This alluring tote bag for women has been designed to assist you on any day. Convenient to carry and fashionably designed, the tote is cut with skill and sewn into a great shape. It ...Category
2010s Italian Tote Bags
- Gucci Brown Guccissima Leather Bamboo Tassel Zip Around WalletBy GucciLocated in Dubai, Al Qouz 2This Gucci wallet is an immaculate balance of sophistication and rational utility. It has been designed using prime quality materials and elevated by a bamboo tassel. The creation is...Category
2010s Italian Wallets
- Gucci Black Matelassé Leather GG Marmont Belt BagBy GucciLocated in Dubai, Al Qouz 2Designer bags are ideal companions for ample occasions! Here we have a fashion-meets-functionality piece crafted with precision. It has been equipped with a well-sized interior that ...Category
2010s Italian Belt Bags
- Escada Y2K Eluna Purse Mint Blue HandbagBy EscadaLocated in Scottsdale, AZIntroducing the Escada 1990s Eluna Mint Blue Leather Hobo Shoulder Bag - a masterpiece in vibrant elegance! This stunning hobo bag boasts the most beautiful mint blue leather, comple...Category
1990s Italian Top Handle Bags
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.