The man who is credited for bringing couture back to the sixties was Yves Saint Laurent, a French designer whose innovative looks and creativity breathed a new life into the fashions of the time.
He is noted highly for his Le Smoking look, an androgynous look for women that resembled a sleek tuxedo. He believed that women should wear this look to resemble the power and influence men usually emit in the same style of clothing.
He also create the iconic Mondrian Dress, made a craze from safari and ethnic inspired prints, and popularized the shirtdress as high fashion.
In the world of runway, he also was one of the first to feature black models in his shows, something that wasn't very common in the late 60s and early 70s.
He was praised for his work by his fans and the press through much of his career, until drugs and alcohol really began taking their toll and he began to give more and more of his work to his assistants. After retiring from the company in 2002, he died a few years later of brain cancer, leaving a legacy behind and a company that is still running to this day.
We have a beautiful, black velvet, strapless, mermaid dress from the 1980s in the shop by Yves St Laurent, and I can see why he was praised and appreciated so much. The shape of the dress itself is beautiful, but the neckline is slightly futuristic and really shows why his designs were so popular for so long.
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