Dress

This fall/winter 1968–69 haute couture “little black dress” in Moroccan crêpe by Yves Saint Laurent with embroideries by Maison Lesage perfectly captures the elegance and highly sophisticated craftsmanship of Parisian haute couture, as well as the revolutionary spirit of its time. It was designed in the summer of 1968, the era of the Paris student revolts, with their maxim “sous les pavés la plage” (the beach beneath the streets). Yves Saint Laurent, dubbed by Diana Vreeland as “the king of all the streets of the world” was renowned for bringing a social dimension into haute couture and championing street styles in his collections of the late 1960s.

This “little black dress” is short and straight, typical of the modern and youthful 1960s silhouette. Its jeweled medallions make it into a perfect example of Yves Saint Laurent’s haute couture eveningwear. The dark Moroccan fabric beset with star-like precious stones demonstrates Saint Laurent’s love for his North African heritage: the reflection of light by the stones look like a shimmering desert night sky.

The dress exemplifies the difference between his daywear and eveningwear, which he explained thus in Elle in 1977: “I like dull colors by day because I find that the light of Paris is ill-suited to bright colors, but at night I want women to be like birds of paradise.”