Today we bring you insight from co-curator Emma McClendon on Yves Saint Laurent’s inspiration from Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel. For more information on the many inspirations of Yves Saint Laurent, check out the essays in the book Yves Saint Laurent + Halston: Fashioning the 70s.

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Historical pastiche was a significant part of Yves Saint Laurent’s design strategy throughout his career. It was especially important during the 1970s, when he was developing his unique voice, and the signature styles of earlier French couturiers became a crucial source of inspiration. These included Christian Dior’s ultra-feminine silhouettes from the 1950s, as well as the hyper exoticism of Paul Poiret from the 1910s. But the couturier of greatest importance to Saint Laurent was Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel.

Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, photographed by Horst P. Horst, 1937.

Yves Saint Laurent, photographed by Jeanloup Sieff, 1971, via 74 Gazette

Chanel affected not only Saint Laurent’s aesthetic, but his entire approach to fashion. He felt by 1970 that Dior’s tradition of unveiling a new silhouette with each collection was out of date. In Saint Laurent’s own words: “Now it is ridiculous to think that clothes must change, that hemlines must change, that women want pants this season and not the next.”¹ In contrast, Chanel’s interest in creating a fashionable uniform or “style” inspired Saint Laurent to search for a “uniform” of his own. As reporters Claude de Leusse and Patricia McColl recounted in Women’s Wear Daily in 1970, “[Saint Laurent] says he’d be perfectly happy to see every woman in the world in the same dress. ‘A uniform for day and a uniform for night.’… It is in essence, the Chanel approach to fashion… Evolution rather than revolution.”²

Jean-Luce Hure, photograph of Yves Saint Laurent and models wearing his designs in Paris that appeared on the front page of Women’s Wear Daily, April 24, 1972.

In 1972, the picture above appeared on the front page of Women’s Wear Daily. It shows Saint Laurent strutting down the street surrounded by models in his latest designs. Underneath the photograph, de Leusse and McColl declared, “Yves St. Laurent continues the spirit of Coco Chanel. His clothes for the Rive Gauche fall/winter collection are as relaxed and easy as Chanel’s were. But the look is pure Yves.”³

Saint Laurent’s Chanel-inspired uniform developed into a vocabulary of essential garments that he proclaimed to be the new basics of the fashionable wardrobe. During the 1970s, this uniform of basics became the backbone of Rive Gauche (his ready-to-wear line and “laboratory” for new designs). Once set, it allowed Saint Laurent to manipulate a broad range of motifs, materials, and inspirations within the same lexicon of style.

(left) Saint Laurent Rive Gauche, sweater, camel wool and fur, 1973, France, 89.32.6, gift of Catherine Cahill;
(right) Yves Saint Laurent, ensemble, multi-color wool, silk, and fur, 1972, France, 95.58.1, gift of Judith Rudner Kessel.

In the exhibition Yves Saint Laurent + Halston: Fashioning the 70s, Saint Laurent’s indebtedness to Chanel is most apparent in the knit suits seen above. Their long knit sweaters, wool skirts, and silk blouses seem to fuse Chanel’s iconic post-war suits with her 1920s chemise-silhouette ensembles (see below).

Chanel, suit, red wool tweed and silk, 1959, 80.261.2, gift of Mrs. Walter Eytan

Paul Schutzer, photograph of models wearing Chanel suits featured in LIFE magazine, September 1961. Via Sage Collection

Chanel, chemise-style day dress, blue silk crepe, 1926, 80.13.3, Gift of Mrs. Georges

Photograph of models in Chanel’s chemise-style suits, Paris, 1926.
 

This connection to Chanel is further emphasized in photographs of a model dressed in Saint Laurent from the August 1973 issue of Vogue (below). Here, the same Rive Gauche, fur-trimmed sweater as the one on view in the exhibition at MFIT has been accessorized with a close-fitting, cloche-like hat (left). The model poses in profile, nonchalantly placing one hand on her hip.

Helmut Newton, photographs of a model wearing Yves Saint Laurent, Vogue, August 1, 1973, Newton / Vogue; © Condé Nast

On the opposite page the same model appears in a similarly styled ensemble consisting of a long knit sweater worn over a high-neckline dress, punctuated by a bow at the base of the neck. The model’s angular, cropped bob completes both looks, and seemingly transforms her into a clone of Chanel herself.

Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, c.1969, via Marie Claire UK

Gabrielle Chanel in Biarritz, 1928. Photo by Roger Viollet, via Buro 24/7
 

Beyond the examples discussed here, Chanel’s influence on Saint Laurent can be felt throughout his work, from his le smoking tuxedos to his exotic evening pajamas. Chanel’s dedication to creating streamlined, androgynous, and modern garments for women with an active lifestyle inspired Saint Laurent to transform the fashionable wardrobe in the 1970s, and the effects of his developments can still be seen today.

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-MM

Halston and the Halstonettes in Acapulco during the Braniff press tour, 1976. Photograph by: Lynn Karlin

The cabine of Halston models that seemed to follow the designer everywhere was known as the “Halstonettes,” a term coined by the fashion editor André Leon Talley. In the book Yves Saint Laurent + Halston: Fashioning the 70s, curator Patricia Mears described Halston’s ever-present entourage of models:

This assemblage of young women was striking not only for their tall, lean bodies and beautiful faces, but also for their ethnic diversity. On one end of the spectrum was the cool Nordic blond, Karen Bjornsen, and on the other, the sensual African American, Pat Cleveland. Most prominent of all was Anjelica Huston, daughter of the famed movie director John Huston. Collectively, the Halstonettes did more than reflect the designer’s clothing style, they mirrored his self-image: young, beautiful, glamorous, haughty, vibrant, and photogenic.

Halston and the Halstonettes wearing bodysuits in black satin, black cashmere, brown wool, and hothouse red satin, May 1977. Photograph by: Harry Benson

Halston treated design as a whole element. Relentless in his quest to achieve a total aesthetic vision, he was determined to have his design sense inform every part of any project he undertook, from elegantly understated evening gowns to the meticulously assembled interiors of his showrooms, offices, and homes. Marvin Traub (president of Bloomingdale’s) recalled that when Bloomingdale’s opened its Halston boutique in August 1969, “Halston wanted to be involved in every detail, down to the shelving. The night before the boutique opened, he stayed up all night to personally sew the drapery and fabrics.”¹ The models he chose were central to communicating the Halston look and lifestyle, and the Halstonettes appeared on the runway season after season. They traveled with the designer en masse to social gatherings and press outings—from nights at Studio 54 to the Great Wall of China.

Halston and models at Olympic Tower 197#. Photograph by Dustin Pittman. via A Shaded View on Fashion

When Halston designed uniforms for Braniff Airlines in 1976, he and his entourage flew to Acapulco to attend an opulent celebration hosted by the company. The Halstonettes appeared with the designer each day, dressed head-to-toe in Halston. Often, the models’ ensembles were identical. Together, the group functioned as a kind of mobile billboard. The models’ diversity showed the versatility and modernity inherent in Halston’s clothing, and in turn, the uniformity of the model’s ensembles served to highlight each woman’s unique features. A key principle of Halston’s work was that his designs were made to flatter a diverse range of women; the Halstonettes were the ideal embodiment of the designer’s intention to create clothes that suited women of diverse ages, shapes, and sizes. He once said, “You have to design for what people are, not what you’d like them to be.”²

Halston shows new looks for Fall 1976 at Yankee Stadium. via Mark D. Sikes

Four Models by Harry Benson. (left to right) Karen Bjornsen, Alva Chinn, Connie Cook, Pat Cleveland, 1978. via Holden Luntz Gallery

Karen Bjornsen wearing hammered silk satin spiral cut strapless gown, 1976. Photograph by: Francesco Scavullo

Halston with Pat Cleveland wearing cashmere jersey wrap dress over red cashmere body suit with red cashmere wrap, April 1977. via Vogue

In 1979, Halston and a twenty-eight person entourage—including the Halstonettes, assistants, executives, and friends—embarked on an international tour to promote American fashion, visiting six cities on three continents over a span of twenty-four days. The entourage was taken to Kennedy Airport in nine identical limousines, and Women’s Wear Daily reported that the group was “dressed in streamlined sportswear—in contemporary shades of red, black, beige, and ivory, so anyone could stand next to anyone and not clash—sunglasses as glossy black and secludingly impenetrable as the limos, they watched as piece after piece of matching brown Ultrasuede luggage covered the sidewalks.”³ The tour began in Los Angeles, then made stops in Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, and Paris.

Halston and entourage visit the Great Wall of China outside Beijing. Photograph: R. Prigent / Sygna. For a full list of those pictured, see p.47 in the book Halston: An American Original

Preparations for the tour took weeks. Color-coordinated ensembles, along with schedules of when and where they were to be worn, were provided to the entire group. Halston said, “The only thing I didn’t furnish was their underwear and something to sleep in…That’s the fascination of it—to be able to edit a wardrobe down to the pieces necessary for a world tour.”⁴ Remarking on his grand design, Halston said “I wanted it like a little movie. It makes it more amusing and removes the whole curse of it being just a business thing. If we directed our whole planet the way we would a play or a movie, it would make life more interesting for everyone.”⁵ Pat Cleveland remembered, “We were like migrating birds, well-choreographed, all color-coordinated.”⁶

Joe Eula, illustration of Halston fitting Lauren Bacall, undated, The Halston Archive, MFIT

If Halston needed an affirmation of his modernist aesthetic, he got it from this celebrity clientele. The women who purchased and wore his garments were as diverse as his models; Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Liza Minnelli, Babe Paley, and Bianca Jagger were all friends and loyal clients. Another close friend was Lauren Bacall, who wore his designs both on-screen and off. In 1973, for the televised version of the play Applause, Halston created twelve full looks for Bacall, including an ice-blue jersey evening gown. During the 1970s, Bacall was a crossover client who wore both Halston + Yves Saint Laurent. MFIT’s permanent collection includes several ensembles from both designers donated by Bacall, and key pieces are on view in Yves Saint Laurent + Halston: Fashioning the 70s.

To see more ensembles donated to MFIT by Lauren Bacall, be sure to visit the graduate student exhibition Lauren Bacall: The Look online. Love this post? Share it on social media with the links below. Stay tuned for more interviews and insights from #YSLhalston.
—MM

muse

noun \ˈmyüz\
1:    any of the nine sister goddesses in Greek mythology presiding over song and poetry and the arts and sciences
2:    a source of inspiration; especially: a guiding genius
3:    poet

Yves Saint Laurent with Loulou de la Falaise and Betty Catroux, 1978. Photograph by: Guy Marineau

In the companion book to Yves Saint Laurent + Halston: Fashioning the 70s, Emma McClendon discusses the vital presence of YSL’s muses:

Like Halston, Saint Laurent had a close-knit group of female friends, clients, co-workers, and companions, who acted as endless sources of inspiration. Among these women were Nan Kempner, Catherine Deneuve, Clara Saint, Talitha Getty, Lauren Bacall, Mary Russell, and Marina Schiano, but none were more important to Saint Laurent’s style than Betty Catroux, Loulou de la Falaise, and Paloma Picasso.

In a way Catroux, Falaise, and Picasso represented three different “types” of woman to Saint Laurent, each with her own unique style…Each, in turn, became one of Saint Laurent’s new archetypes of the fashionable woman. Through Rive Gauche, women around the world could try on these different personalities, experiment with aspects of each look, and adopt them according to mood.

The first of Saint Laurent’s muses to influence his style was Paloma Picasso. The youngest daughter of Pablo Picasso and Françoise Gilot, she was an eclectic dresser and pioneered the idea of incorporating vintage styles into her wardrobe, especially looks from the 1940s. Saint Laurent took inspiration from the emerging trend for “vintage” on the streets of Paris, particularly as Picasso wore it. According to Pierre Bergé, when Picasso and Saint Laurent first met in the spring of 1970, her vintage style gave Saint Laurent an “aesthetic jolt.”¹ His spring 1971 “Forties” couture collection, heavily influenced by Picasso’s look, was a new and modern take on historicism that would resonate throughout the fashion world.

Paloma Picasso, Marisa Berenson, and Loulou de la Falaise at an Yves Saint Laurent presentation in 1971.

Menswear was another of Yves Saint Laurent’s most important contributions to fashion. Many credit Betty Catroux for being the catalyst that helped codify the menswear look he popularized. Saint Laurent and Catroux considered themselves “twins,” each one the physical embodiment of the other as the opposite sex. In the book Yves Saint Laurent (Abrams, 2010), the designer wrote, “…we were both very skinny and very pale [. . .] with an androgynous side.”² The two would often appear together in similar attire: pantsuits, jumpsuits, and safari ensembles.

Betty Catroux in a Saint Laurent Rive Gauche boutique, 1969

Yves Saint Laurent and Betty Catroux at the opening of the Rive Gauche boutique in London, 1969. via Grazia France.

Exoticism was yet another key element of the Saint Laurent oeuvre and nobody inspired this part of his work better than Loulou de la Falaise. In 2002, Judith Thurman wrote in the New Yorker that she was “the quintessential Rive Gauche haute bohémienne.”³ Falaise first met Saint Laurent in 1968, and in 1972 she moved from New York to Paris to work for him, designing jewelry, accessories, and clothing. Her free-spirited style and eclectic vision had a lasting impact: she remained at Yves Saint Laurent for nearly forty years. Lauren Hutton recalled, “At first sight of Loulou, you knew she was one of a kind, a rare evolutionary wonder.”⁴

Loulou de la Falaise wearing a “treasured necklace given to her by [Pierre] Bergé and Yves Saint Laurent.”⁵ Vogue Italia Photograph by: Guy Marineau

Saint Laurent once said of Falaise, “Loulou’s true talent, other than her undeniable professional qualities, is her charm. Unique. Moving. She has an extraordinary lightness of touch, along with a faultless critical view of fashion. Intuitive, innate, individual. Her presence at my side is a dream.”⁶

Loulou de la Falaise and Yves Saint Laurent styling the model Willy van Rooy, 1974. Via Sarara Vintage

Deborah Turberville, photograph of Yves Saint Laurent with friends and muses Loulou de la Falaise
and Marina Schiano in his Paris atelier, Vogue, February, 1975, Turberville / Vogue © Condé Nast

Yves Saint Laurent was a famously private man. In addition to Loulou, Betty, and Paloma, he kept a close-knit circle of colleagues and friends dubbed his “Private Five” by Vogue. Among them was Marina Schiano. Schiano first worked with Saint Laurent as a model, and quickly rose to become the director of his New York operations. Schiano remained with Saint Laurent, America for 11 years, during which time she collected an astounding assortment of his work. She donated a large holding of these pieces to the museum – many of which can be seen in the exhibition. MFIT senior curator Fred Dennis wrote about Marina Schiano’s gifts to MFIT in the #YSLhalston book:

[An] important and influential donor to the museum…the former model, muse, and close friend of Saint Laurent…became the director of Yves Saint Laurent, America. During the 1980s, Schiano was hired by Vanity Fair magazine, where she became a highly respected stylist. Her numerous donations of Yves Saint Laurent haute couture and Rive Gauche pieces have built up the museum’s YSL holdings into one of the strongest in the collection.

Marina Schiano, Loulou de la Falaise, Yves Saint Laurent at the Opium launch party, 1978. via Nick Verreos

Among the garments donated by Schiano on view in #YSLhalston, include the dress she wore to the launch party for Saint Laurent’s “Opium” perfume in 1978. The lavish celebration was held aboard the Peking, a four-mast ship docked at the South Street Seaport in New York’s east harbor. Guests were invited to revel among thousands of orchids, a giant bronze Buddha, and red Chinese-style lanterns.

Yves Saint Laurent and Marina Schiano in an evening gown by the designer during the New York launch party for his “Opium” perfume, October, Fairchild Archive. Photograph: Tony Palmieri

Yves Saint Laurent evening ensemble, black textured silk, velvet, and gold lame, France, gift of Marina Schiano

(detail) Yves Saint Laurent evening ensemble, black textured silk, velvet, and gold lame, France, gift of Marina Schiano

Clients also played a crucial role in the development and expansion of Saint Laurent’s style. Among one of his most important clients was actress Lauren Bacall. Bacall was, in fact, a crossover client of Yves Saint Laurent and Halston. Her gifts to MFIT, given between 1968 and 1986, include ensembles from both designers.

Lauren Bacall, Yves Saint Laurent, and Remy Schneider after an Yves Saint Laurent collection presentation, Paris, undated, Photograph by: Jack Nisberg, Nina Hyde Collection, FIT Special Collections Library

Bacall first met YSL in 1968, while filming the television special “Bacall and the Boys” in Paris, and she called their meeting “the start of a valued friendship.”⁷ Many key Yves Saint Laurent pieces in #YSLhalston were donated by Bacall and others can also be seen in the graduate student exhibition Lauren Bacall: The Look, on view in Gallery FIT until April 4, 2015.

To learn more about Yves Saint Laurent and Halston visit the exhibition Yves Saint Laurent + Halston: Fashioning the 70s on view in MFIT’s Special Exhibitions Gallery through April 18th, 2015.

Love this post? Share it on social media with the links below. Stay tuned for more from #YSLhalston.
–MM

Installation view, Yves Saint Laurent + Halston: Fashioning the 70s. Exhibition design, Kimberly Ackert, 2015. Photographer: Eileen Costa © MFIT

This week we’re thrilled to share curatorial insight on Halston and Madame Grès, from co-curator + MFIT deputy director Patricia Mears. For more information on the two designers, check out the essays in the book Yves Saint Laurent + Halston: Fashioning the 70s, as well as Patricia’s book Madame Grès: Sphinx of Fashion. See more from Patricia in our full list of past publications.

Patricia Mears | photo by William Palmer

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Two of the greatest fashion creators working during the second half of the twentieth century were Madame Alix Grès (1903-1993) and Halston (1932-1990). Although they were of different generations and nationalities, during the 1970s Grès and Halston shared a remarkably similar aesthetic. Each produced unique versions of caftans and evening dresses that were innovatively constructed, comfortable, and sophisticated—attributes that have given their work a timeless quality.

Sketch of a one-shouldered gown by Madame Grès, Summer 1977. Private collection.

Halston, sketch, undated, The Halston Archives at The Museum at FIT © MFIT

I argue that Halston aligned himself with Grès, the venerated Parisian couturière, soon after his remarkable move from milliner to dressmaker. Although the only known period statement to make a connection between the two designers was penned by fashion journalist Eugenia Sheppard in 1978—when she wrote that Halston could “handle scissors more expertly than almost anyone but Madame Grès”—viewing their designs side-by-side reveals that such an assertion is plausible. Furthermore, I believe Grès’s approach to design may have been the catalyst that inspired Halston to abandon his long-time hat-making techniques. Unlike another great milliner-turned-dressmaker, Charles James, who crafted rigid and inflexible gowns, Halston instantly and completely abandoned all vestiges of his millinery vocabulary and opted to design only soft, fluid, easily wearable clothing.

Halston for Bergdorf Goodman, dress and matching cape, red and black wool, c.1966, 82.42.4, gift of Mildred S. Hilson

During the 1960s and 1970s, Grès was a revered figure as well as a formidable force in fashion. By amplifying her swirling method of draping honed during the early phase of her career in the 1930s, Grès’s “op-art dresses and flowery gowns for ‘couture hippies’,” as Vogue described them in 1966, led to a resurgence of editorial coverage of her work by leading fashion magazines. Having ready access to haute couture while working as the house milliner for Bergdorf Goodman during the 1960s, Halston must have known that Grès was a master technician and one of greatest dressmaking innovators of the twentieth century. Halston, like Grès, crafted garments from geometrically shaped pattern pieces and bias draping.

Barbara Streisand wearing Madame Grès in Vogue Italia, May 1966. via Vogue Italia.

However, while there is evidently a shared aesthetics, upon close examination, their respective designs are revealed to be distinctly dissimilar. Halston’s caftans and gowns could never be called copies or stylistic appropriations of Grès’s.

Grès tended to cut and fold her creations with less complexity than Halston did his. For example, her coral-colored wool jersey ensemble (in the MFIT permanent collection) is comprised of a simple, tubular skirt on the bottom, and, on top, a hip-length tunic that dips dramatically in the back. Made from one piece of material and cut on the straight grain, the shape of the tunic’s pattern resembles a rectangle on three sides; the fourth, longer side is deeply curved (with two lobes and one deep dip) like one side of a violin. The drama of the garment comes not only from the simplicity of the pattern but also from Grès’s bias-draping.

Madame Grès, evening set, coral wool and angora jersey, 1965, France, 88.88.1, gift of Chessy Rayner

Madame Grès, evening set, coral wool and angora jersey, 1965, France, 88.88.1, gift of Chessy Rayner

Halston crafted his loose and billowy caftans a la Grès by draping on the bias, using lengths of fabric cut on both the straight grain and the bias, but he took the construction one step further by folding and assembling his versions in more complex patterns. For example, his red synthetic caftan, embroidered with long, parallel rows of red bugle beads, is a brilliant version of his “envelope,” a construction process that was also used to make loose pajama tops and caftans. One pattern piece, shaped like a parallelogram, is folded on the bias and draped over the head and shoulders, then folded again on the sides, along the straight grain, around the body.

Halston, evening caftan, red beaded nylon, c. 1977, USA, 82.3.1, gift of Frederick Supper

One of the most sophisticated of Halston’s creations is his celebrated, spiral cut, “tube” dress dating to around 1976. Referred to as the “sarong” dress, this strapless, floor-length garment gained its moniker because of a knotted closure positioned above the bust. Its construction, however, was a complete departure from the loose, wrapped Polynesian skirt for which it was named. Much more a couture creation, the sarong-tie dress obtained its body-skimming silhouette from a single length of deftly draped, bias-cut, silk. A length of fabric was first cut into the shape of a parallelogram, then meticulously folded and sewn along the bias to form a swirling spiral. The seam of the dress—if viewed diagrammatically when wrapped and sewn together—resembles the red stripes of a candy cane.

(detail) Halston, “sarong” dress, gold hammered silk satin, 1976, USA, 82.3.9, gift of Frederick Supper

Halston, sketch of “sarong” pants, 1977, The Halston Archives, MFIT

In terms of innovation, the phase of Halston’s creative career from the mid-1970s to the end of the decade was his greatest. His work did more than echo the groundbreaking technical approach to construction practiced by the greatest of couturières, such as Madame Grès. It clearly reflected Halston’s unique and modern approach to design and the creation of a style for which he could undoubtedly claim authorship.

Installation view, Yves Saint Laurent + Halston: Fashioning the 70s. Exhibition design, Kimberly Ackert, 2015. Photographer: Eileen Costa © MFIT

Love this post? Share it on social media with the links below. Stay tuned for more curatorial insights, and tweet using #YSLhalston.
–MM

Today we’re excited to share some curatorial insight on Yves Saint Laurent’s ready-to-wear line Rive Gauche, from exhibition co-curator Emma McClendon. For more information on Rive Gauche, check out the essays in the book Yves Saint Laurent + Halston: Fashioning the 70s.

Emma McClendon, co-curator of Yves Saint Laurent + Halston: Fashioning the 70s, and assistant curator at MFIT

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On September 19, 1966, Yves Saint Laurent opened a ready-to-wear boutique in Paris called “Saint Laurent Rive Gauche.” This marked the first time a couturier successfully launched a ready-to-wear line in France. Situated in a former antiques store in the student-dominated area of the Seine’s Left Bank, the appropriately named store (Rive Gauche is literally “left bank” in French) was a complete departure from the grand and gilded interior of his haute couture salon. Rive Gauche was an immediate success, with some customers waiting up to three hours simply to purchase items. Within a matter of weeks, it was clear Rive Gauche was the new sanctum of Paris youth culture.

Wesley, photograph of Betty Catroux, Yves Saint Laurent, and Loulou de la Falaise at the opening of the Saint Laurent Rive Gauche boutique in London, 1969, Wesley/Getty Images

Today, Yves Saint Laurent is best remembered for his haute couture. It is widely thought that he would create dreamy, fantastical looks in couture and then translate them into less expensive, ready-to-wear versions. This view has led most scholars, curators, and fashion enthusiasts to overlook Rive Gauche as merely a watered-down version of Saint Laurent’s couture.

In actuality, during the 1970s, Rive Gauche was the site of Saint Laurent’s most prolific creative production. It was a laboratory of sorts, where he could experiment freely with different styles, looks, and sources of inspiration, away from the pressures of the haute couture salon. In fact, many of his most famous collections began in Rive Gauche, including his Russian- and Chinese-inspired collections of 1976 and 1977.

(left) Yves Saint Laurent ensemble, printed silk, 1977, France, 2006.35.2, Gift of Francine Gray
(right) Saint Laurent Rive Gauche ensemble, printed fuschia silk satin and wool, 1976, France, 78.57.9, Gift of Ethell Scull

Rive Gauche was also where Saint Laurent developed his philosophy of wardrobe “essentials.” He presented modern women with a vocabulary of separates that they could mix and match in seemingly endless combinations. This differed significantly from the idea of the “total look” that had dominated high fashion previously.

(left) Saint Laurent Rive Gauche sweater, camel wool and fur, 1973, France, 89.32.6, gift of Catherine Cahill
(right) Yves Saint Laurent ensemble, multi-color wool, silk, and fur, 1972, France, 95.58.1, Gift of Judith Rudner Kessel

As Saint Laurent himself explained in 1972, “What is modern in clothes today is to have a skirt, pants, shirt, sweater, coat, and raincoat and to mix everything…[but] the parts of the mix cannot be expensive. In couture everything is expensive. With ready-to-wear you can play around with the many parts of clothes and change them. In couture you can’t play with clothes.”¹

In June of 1971, Yves Saint Laurent appeared in French ELLE flanked by models wearing nearly identical ensembles – one from his latest haute couture collection, and the other from his ready-to-wear line, Rive Gauche. The article’s title declared, “Yves Saint Laurent choisit le prêt à porter” (“Yves Saint Laurent chooses ready-to-wear”²). Over the course of a multi-page spread illustrated with a series of side-by-side comparisons, Saint Laurent explained that he was now designing his couture along the same lines as his ready-to-wear.

Henri Elwing, photograph of Yves Saint Laurent and models wearing a look from his ready-to-wear collection on the left and a look from his couture collection on the right, French Elle, June 9, 1971

Four months later, Saint Laurent reaffirmed his dedication to Rive Gauche in a television interview, when he announced: “I have chosen to present my fashion through my ready-to-wear rather than through my haute couture…”³ With Rive Gauche, Saint Laurent was able to formulate a distinct style and approach to dressing that formed the core of his brand and became synonymous with the modernity of the 1970s.

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Love this post? Share it on social media with the links below. Until next time, tweet us using #YSLhalston.
-MM