Dress

House of Dior|Yves Saint Laurent

spring/summer 1959 · cotton, silk, leather · Costume Institute

Following his first successful "Trapèze" collection for Dior in 1958, Saint Laurent remained committed to promoting the new shape for garments the following year. The silhouette of this day dress is essentially boxy, with the suede belt providing the definition at the waistline. The dropped shoulders are a marked departure from the precise tailoring of Dior garments from the 1940s and 1950s, but the unfitted cut of the bodice represented a larger shift in fashion, toward a more youthful geometry. The designs of Yves Saint Laurent for Dior helped to convey this change and the new shape became mainstream in the 1960s.

Artist

House of Dior|Yves Saint Laurent

Date

spring/summer 1959

Medium

cotton, silk, leather

Culture

French

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Mrs. Hans H. Zinsser, 1967