Yves Saint Laurent – How Did He Revolutionize How Women Dressed?
Seven ways Yves Saint Laurent changed how women dress: the Rive Gauche boutique, sheer blouses, Le Smoking in 1966, the Mondrian dresses and more.
Yves Saint Laurent died on 1 June 2008. He was one of the most acclaimed fashion designers of the twentieth century, and in his lifetime he was called a genius, a boy wonder and the Pied Piper of fashion. Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, compared his creative life to Picasso’s: each new style he introduced left its mark on fashion.
He began at 21, with his first collection for Christian Dior. In 1983, at 47, he became the first living designer to be given a retrospective at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Here are seven ways he changed how women dress.
This brand always presents itself to me in a vintage way. Whether it’s the streets of Holland, London, Andorra or Paris, I have ended up with some unique iconic collections of YSL. No matter where my footsteps lie, when I am seeking a vintage item, the man himself keeps screaming out to me to purchase vintage.
The black Yves Saint Laurent bag in the photograph was mine. I bought it in Knightsbridge, in London, in 2000, and I have since sold it on Vestiaire Collective.
He made high fashion ready-to-wear popular
In September 1966 Saint Laurent became the first couturier to open a ready-to-wear boutique under his own name. Rive Gauche, at 21 rue de Tournon on the Left Bank in Paris, was not a cheaper version of his couture. It was where he tried out new ideas and showed entirely separate collections. It was a success, and a long way from the couture salons. He opened boutiques in New York in 1968 and in London in 1969, and in that same year a ready-to-wear shop for men.
He put sheer blouses on the runway
In the late 1960s, at the height of the sexual revolution and second-wave feminism, Saint Laurent showed sheer organza blouses and transparent tops. It was his answer to the mood of the time, and it was about equality between the sexes, not exhibitionism. Hamish Bowles of American Vogue has noted that the designs gave his clients confidence and sex appeal without vulgarity. On the runway his models went without bras.
He branded himself
In 1971 it was unusual for a designer to appear in his own advertising. Saint Laurent posed naked for the YSL Pour Homme campaign. The photograph, by Jeanloup Sieff, was not widely published at the time. It is still talked about today.
He gave women the same wardrobe as men
Women had worn suits and trousers before Saint Laurent. But as Pierre Bergé put it in 2008, Gabrielle Chanel gave women freedom and Yves Saint Laurent gave them power. Le Smoking, the tuxedo he introduced in 1966, caused controversy, because it was still taboo for a woman to wear trousers in public. The American socialite Nan Kempner was famously turned away from La Côte Basque in New York for wearing her YSL tuxedo suit.
Le Smoking stood for rebellion, androgyny and glamour. In 1977 Saint Laurent said he had wanted to give women the same basic wardrobe as men: a blazer, trousers and a suit, because they are functional. He believed women wanted it, and he was right. Among the first to wear Yves Saint Laurent’s Le Smoking were Catherine Deneuve, Liza Minnelli, Lauren Bacall and Bianca Jagger.
He changed the shape of women’s fashion
Saint Laurent worked under Christian Dior before he had his own house. Dior hired him in 1955. In 1957 Dior died suddenly of a heart attack, and Saint Laurent, then 21, became creative director. His first collection, the Trapeze line for spring 1958, was given a standing ovation. He left Dior’s cinched waist behind for a lighter, flowing shape that used less fabric.
He brought art and fashion together
Art and fashion are close today. Saint Laurent was one of the first to bring art into his runway shows and to show his designs in galleries. He drew on Vincent van Gogh, Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Georges Braque. The best known is the Mondrian collection of 1965: six shift dresses that paid tribute to the Dutch painter’s grids.
He put Black models on the runway
Fashion still struggles with race. Saint Laurent was one of the first to put women of colour on the runway. Iman, Rebecca Ayoko, Katoucha Niane and Dalma Callado were his muses and his regulars. Naomi Campbell has credited him with her first Vogue cover. She told him she could not get a French Vogue cover as a Black girl. He said he would take care of it, and he did.
