This is the Polynesie dress designed by Yves Saint
Laurent for the House of Christian Dior for their spring/summer 1960 collection.
So this is a haute couture garment meaning that it is handmade and it's made to a specific person's
measurements. It also means that it was made by a French Couture House under guidelines which were
set out at the time of the Chambre Syndicale De La Haute Couture who regulate the haute
couture industry. So Yves Saint Laurent was a French fashion designer. He was born in Oran,
Algeria in 1936 and growing up he actually wanted to be a theatrical designer but was
encouraged by his family to pursue fashion design. At the age of 17 he moved to Paris and
enrolled at the Chambre Syndicale De La Haute Couture to study there. Shortly after winning
multiple prestigious awards he was introduced to Christian Dior by the editor of French Vogue at
the time. He was only 18 and he was hired almost instantly. After Christian Dior's death in 1957
Yves Saint Laurent was made the Creative Director of the House at just 21 years old.
Yves Saint Laurent went on to open his own fashion house in 1962 after leaving Christian Dior.
He is most known for his designs such as his Safari Jackets, his sharp shouldered blazers,
his Mondrian Collection and probably most notably the 'smoking suit' which was designed for women,
and this really set a precedent for power dressing in the decades to come as well as
androgynous fashion. And he's also really known as a designer for reflecting some of
the political and social changes that were happening in the 1960s and 70s and helping
to empower women through their clothing. The collection that this dress comes from
is his spring/summer 1960 collection and this was titled 'Silhouette of Tomorrow', very fittingly.
This type of design people might not typically associate with Yves Saint Laurent, it might be a
bit of surprise that it was designed by him, he's more known for his blazers and suits than this
kind of dress. So the dress is made from a silk zibeline, zibeline is normally a wool made from
animal fur but in this case it is a stiff soft silk. iI's also got embellishment with pink and
orange beading as well as sequins, diamantes, pieces of coral and gold, silver and bronze
threads. So part of the bodice is embellished with coral and this has been assessed by our
conservation department and it's suspected to be a precious coral, corralium rubrum,
this is found in various parts of the world but largely in the Mediterranean. It has a really
extensive dress history that dates back centuries. This type of coral isn't commonly used in fashion
now due to over-exploitation of trade, rising sea temperatures and overfishing, it is now a
protected and endangered life form. So the dress is a really unique example of craftsmanship, the
construction of the bodice itself is relatively simple with princess seams down the front here,
a high round neckline, three-quarter sleeves and the back has this center-back zip fastening. The
bodice also has boning inside which helps keep its structure. The skirt is constructed in two tiers
with the top tier being cut in panels here and this really helps emphasise the shape of the skirt
as well as the zibeline fabric being thick enough to hold its shape and the sheen of the fabric
emphasising this even more. It's also slightly gathered at the waist and has this detachable bow
belt which comes undone at the front here. However what really brings it to life is the embellishment
on the bodice, so the way that the bodice was constructed, if we look really closely we can
see that there's a layer of netting underneath so the embroidery is done on the net not on the
bodice fabric itself. Part of the embroidery is done with these gold threads which is a flat gold
thread wrapped around a core of other threads and you can see really closely in areas where this is
coming undone but it does give an insight into how this kind of piece would have been created.
This dress would be quite a typical example of formal women's evening wear in 1960. It
was still very uncommon to see hemlines above the knee and this silhouette was quite typical of the
time. That being said it's definitely on the cusp of new styles coming into fashion in the decade.
If you were to compare it to Dior's 'Bar Suit' in 1947 which is just over a decade before this was
designed, we can see that the waist is still quite emphasised, however our eyes are drawn
to the fullness of the hips in the skirt and then it drops down into a much more rectangular shape.
If you were to compare it to Yves Saint Laurent's Mondrian Dress just five years later in 1965,
you can see that the two dresses are very different in design and aesthetic,
however you can see a progression in the silhouette from this example to the
Mondrian dress in the rectangular shape of the skirt. We also have documentation
that the wearer of the dress was on an International Best Dressed list in 1964.
So we have these shoes in our collection which appear to match the dress. They were
donated by a different person however if we look at the similarities in the design,
the embellishment as well as the materials that are used, we can safely assume that they
are intended to match. You can see it's got this very similar colour oyster silk however in this
case it's a grosgrain silk. It's also got very similar embellishment materials with the coral,
the orange and pink beads, sequins, diamantes as well as gold, bronze and silver metallic threads.
So these shoes weren't designed by Yves Saint Laurent they were designed by Roger Vivier who
was a French luxury shoe designer and he worked with many couturiers from Elsa Schiaparelli to
Christian Dior as well as Yves Saint Laurent once he had opened his own fashion house. He's actually
the only one of Dio'rs collaborators to have his credit imprinted on every design, which you can
see inside the shoe here. So this kind of shoe we can see it's got a pointed turned up toe and quite
an exaggerated curved heel which is what we call a 'Louis' heel and this is named after King Louis XV
of France as this type of heel was quite popular during his reign. So we can see he's got quite a
curved heel and then it's slightly flared out at the bottom here. Roger Vivier is also credited
with inventing the 'comma' heel which gets its name from its really curved heel shape, as well
as reinventing the Stiletto heel in the 1950s with the steel rod. We can see that it brings
the ensemble to an entirely new level and having such an extravagant and lavish dress really needs
the right kind of shoe to complement this and Roger Vivier was perfect for this kind of design.
So this ensemble is a really great example of beautiful craftsmanship and detail in
design as well as showcasing Yves Saint Laurent's push for and preference for
modernity in his designs. It also showcases just how influential Yves Saint Laurent was
as a designer as well as his position at the forefront of the fashion industry.