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Evening ensemble

Design House Yves Saint Laurent French
Designer Yves Saint Laurent French, born Algeria
fall/winter 1976–77
Not on view
Fashion design in the early 1970s was dominated by ready-to-wear and sportswear, both because of new standards of casual behavior and because of the expanded interest of the bourgeoisie in fashion. In this climate, in which some mistook the couture's renewed synergy with popular fashion design as its demise, Saint Laurent created a reactionary collection intended to revive the couture, using the most luxurious fabrics, feathered turbins, passementerie ties, and horsehair-braid-reinforced petticoats. Saint Laurent refreshed the couture, making it seem desirable and distinctive in a time of ready-to-wear leadership. Acclaimed by the International Herald Tribune as "a revolution" and "the most dramatic and expensive show ever seen in Paris," Saint Laurent's Russian collection of fall/winter 1976-77 was counter-revolutionary to the 1960s.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Evening ensemble
  • Design House: Yves Saint Laurent (French, founded 1961)
  • Designer: Yves Saint Laurent (French (born Algeria) Oran 1936–2008 Paris)
  • Date: fall/winter 1976–77
  • Culture: French
  • Medium: silk, cotton, glass, wool, metallic thread
  • Credit Line: Gift of Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, 1979
  • Object Number: 1979.329.7a–c
  • Curatorial Department: The Costume Institute

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Coat, Yves Saint Laurent French, wool, French
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Yves Saint Laurent
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Ensemble
Yves Saint Laurent
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Boots, Yves Saint Laurent French, a,b) leather, French
Boots
Multiple artists/makers
fall/winter 2001–2
Coat, Yves Saint Laurent French, wool, French
Coat
Yves Saint Laurent
early 1970s
Trousers, Yves Saint Laurent French, cotton, French
Trousers
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ca. 1973

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