Weekend Eye Candy - Yves St. Laurent Wedding Gown, 1983
Photo by Terence Donovan Read more...
Showing posts with label Yves Saint Laurent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yves Saint Laurent. Show all posts
Photo by Terence Donovan Read more...
Mondrian as Inspiration
Dear Readers: Your blog hostess is in need of a break. This week, I will be republishing random posts from the last 5 years. As always, your comments and suggestions are very welcome. Thank you for being here!
Piet Mondrian: "Kompozicija" 1921Quick, who designed this dress?
You said Yves St. Laurent, didn't you? Sorry, wrong. This is actually a linen top and skirt by Jr. Sophisticates. The ad appeared in Vogue magazine in April of 1961. 1961?????? But St. Laurent didn't debut his own label until January of 1962!That's right, my friends. Using Mondrian as an inspiration for fashion was not the original idea of Yves St. Laurent. So, who was the designer at Jr. Sophisticates in 1961? Anne Klein, that's who. She designed an entire group of one and two piece dresses based upon the paintings of Mondrian a full 4 years before St. Laurent's versions made such a splash in Paris.
There is a major difference, though. Klein's top above looks rather blocky and square, rather shapeless. Take a look at the two St. Laurent versions below, from his Fall/Winter 1965/66 collection.
See how the dress curves in gently at the sides to define the waist?
See how there is subtle shaping at the bust? There are no darts, but the dress curves gently over this area.
You can see it better in this photo of the first dress from the collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute. Instead of piecing flat blocks of fabric and covering the seams with black binding, as it appears was done by Klein, St. Laurent has cut the blocks of color and black strips separately. But the pieces are not squares and rectangles. They actually have odd angles at the edges. The shaping of the garment that would normally be achieved with darts is all cleverly hidden in the seams where one piece joins another. And when those oddly shaped pieces are joined together, they appear as a flat grid as in Mondrian's painting.That, my friends, is couture.
For more Mondrian inspired fashion, take a look at this site, which was put together several years ago by Snap Dragon. Even Nike has produced Mondrian inspired shoes, shown here.
UPDATE: Welmoeds posted a comment in which she shared her blog post about designing a copy of the YSL dress for herself. She drafted the pattern and you can see that on her blog here. And you can see the fantastic results here. Fabulous job and thank you for sharing Welmoeds! Read more...
Claude Lalanne Jewelry for Yves St. Laurent, 1976
French artists Claude Lalanne and her husband Francois-Xavier Lalanne are best known for their large metal sculptures. He preferred to sculpt animals, while she used botanical references in her work. Yves St. Laurent was a great admirer of their work and had several pieces in his private collection. Claude Lalanne designed jewelry and belts for Yves St. Laurent as early as 1971, but I especially like these pieces that she made in the spring of 1976.
Above, a fantastical copper headpiece consisting of branches and flowers with a large butterfly at the front.
A romantic choker necklace with large butterflies both front and back.
And here, a small image of the gorgeous cuff bracelets, which look like ginko leaves that curve around the arm. Click on the photo for a larger view.
Lalanne also designed furniture. Above, one of the bronze chairs that was commissioned by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation for the courtyard of the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum.
This is a view from above of a 1996 bronze ginko leaf patio table that came with 6 chairs. The set sold at auction in 2008 for $314,500.
If you're lucky enough to be in Florida, you can see many of the outdoor sculptures of the Lalannes at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden this year.
Weekend Eye Candy - Yves St. Laurent, 1983
A silver beaded jacket worn over a silk mousseline blouse and gray flannel pants, all by Yves St. Laurent, 1983.
Yves St. Laurent's Nod to Elsa Schiaparelli
For his Fall/Winter "Collection Shakespeare" of 1980, Yves St. Laurent paid tribute to literature by using references to various poets in a surrealistic manner.
The jacket shown above is embroidered with a line from Jean Cocteau's 1920's poem "Battierie". Translated, the line reads, "Sun, I am black inside and rose outside, which is the metamorphosis." The pink satin jacket is lined in black velvet and a crystal and sequined sun forms the collar.
This black coat is embroidered with the title of a poem by Apollinaire, "Tout Terriblement".
As part of the same collection, St. Laurent showed this blue velvet jacket embroidered with a pair of eyes and the words, "Les Yeux d'Elsa". Translated as "The Eyes of Elsa", the words are the title of a poem by Louis Aragon. However, St. Laurent also cleverly pays tribute to Elsa Schiaparelli with this jacket by taking inspiration from her Zodiac Collection of 1938-39. 
This Schiaparelli jacket in blue velvet is embroidered with the signs of the zodiac, planets, and constellations.
Metropolitan Museum Costume CollectionAnd this Schiaparelli jacket from the same collection, is embroidered with gold starbursts. Do you see the inspiration? Read more...
Paris Couture - 1966
How about a little Parisian couture from the Fall of 1966 today? Yes, I thought so.
Left: Christian Dior black silk crepe dinner dress with a wide band of silver sequins at the empire waist and at the same level on the upper arm. The long sleeves are slit to the wrist.
Right: Christian Dior black silk crepe evening gown with cut-outs at the back accented with diamanté ball buttons.
This cut-out style was destined to be copied by nearly everyone. I've sold numerous 1960's cocktail dresses with interesting cut-outs at the back. This is the original.
Lanvin black silk crepe evening gown is circled in stripes of pink, acid green, and black sequins at the bodice. Interesting squared-off armholes.
Patou coatdress in cream double-faced wool that has been cut on the bias. Welted seams tame the bias. Worn with ribbed tights, kidskin boots, and a wool cap over a silk head scarf.
Left: Philippe Venet back wrap coat in neon yellow brushed wool fleece.
Right: Philippe Venet back wrap coat in cream wool fleece. Has a belt and a slit at the front hem.
OK, I have to comment on these coats. They close in the back. Interesting, but I can just see myself trying to figure out how the heck this was worn if I ever found one of these at an estate. I would more than likely have put it on the mannequin backwards and wondered why it wasn't falling correctly and why the pockets were on the back!
Yves St. Laurent grey wool coat with a flared fit and big silver disc buttons.
Yves St. Laurent black wool coat fitted at the bodice and flaring below the waist. Accented with big gold disc buttons.
Weekend Eye Candy - Yves St. Laurent 1967
An Yves St. Laurent mini dress from 1967 of ivory organdy over pale peach silk, heavily embroidered with shaped geometric pearlized and silver plastic pieces surrounded by rhinestones, silver thread and crystal beads. Sigh.
Weekend Eye Candy - Yves St. Laurent 1970
A theatrical cape of ostrich feathers by Yves St. Laurent for ballerina Zizi Jeanmaire in 1970.
Mondrian as Inspiration
Piet Mondrian: "Kompozicija" 1921Quick, who designed this dress?
You said Yves St. Laurent, didn't you? Sorry, wrong. This is actually a linen top and skirt by Jr. Sophisticates. The ad appeared in Vogue magazine in April of 1961. 1961?????? But St. Laurent didn't debut his own label until January of 1962!That's right, my friends. Using Mondrian as an inspiration for fashion was not the original idea of Yves St. Laurent. So, who was the designer at Jr. Sophisticates in 1961? Anne Klein, that's who. She designed an entire group of one and two piece dresses based upon the paintings of Mondrian a full 4 years before St. Laurent's versions made such a splash in Paris.
There is a major difference, though. Klein's top above looks rather blocky and square, rather shapeless. Take a look at the two St. Laurent versions below, from his Fall/Winter 1965/66 collection.
See how the dress curves in gently at the sides to define the waist?
See how there is subtle shaping at the bust? There are no darts, but the dress curves gently over this area.
You can see it better in this photo of the first dress from the collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute. Instead of piecing flat blocks of fabric and covering the seams with black binding, as it appears was done by Klein, St. Laurent has cut the blocks of color and black strips separately. But the pieces are not squares and rectangles. They actually have odd angles at the edges. The shaping of the garment that would normally be achieved with darts is all cleverly hidden in the seams where one piece joins another. And when those oddly shaped pieces are joined together, they appear as a flat grid as in Mondrian's painting.That, my friends, is couture.
For more Mondrian inspired fashion, take a look at this site, which was put together several years ago by Snap Dragon. Even Nike has produced Mondrian inspired shoes, shown here.
Written content is copyright of Couture Allure. If you are reading this anywhere but on the Couture Allure Vintage Fashion Blog, it is via RSS feed. Read more...
Weekend Eye Candy - Yves St Laurent Feather Dress
Fall/Winter 1969-70 collection of Yves St. Laurent. Evening dress of Bird of Paradise feathers.
Yves St. Laurent Dress 1967
An embroidered and beaded mini dress from Yves Saint Laurent's Africa collection for Spring/Summer 1967. The midriff is bare behind a lattice of beads. Click on the image to see details.
Loulou & Betty
These are two of Yves Saint Laurent's favorite muses: Betty Catroux and Loulou de la Falaise.Catroux's most famous collaboration has been with her longtime friend and partner in nightlife, Yves Saint Laurent, whom he called her his "twin sister." She combines androgynous glamour with a very Parisian sense of refined ennui and irreverence — at her 1968 wedding to decorator François Catroux, she wore a black-and-white fur chubby and knee-high patent-leather boots.
Loulou's Mother Maxime de la Falaise was a noted fashionista of her day and a model for Schiaparelli. Loulou therefore grew up in the world of high fashion. After a short-lived first marriage to the Desmond FitzGerald, 29th Knight of Glin, she moved to Paris and became the friend and creative partner of Yves Saint Laurent. According to The Independent, she helped inspire his 1966 female tuxedo Le Smoking and his see-through blouses. The designer and his former muse collaborated until his death. De la Falaise now runs Maison de Loulou, a Left Bank boutique in Paris.
Loulou with YSL and Bianca Jagger
Betty's wedding
(style.com, corbis, Gerard Malanga)
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