Diorama, cocktail dress
1959 {Longue collection, spring-summer 1959}
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM and Family through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gift Program, 2023
- Gallery location
- Not on display
About this work
When Christian Dior died unexpectedly in 1957, twenty-one-year-old Yves Saint Laurent became chief designer for the house of Dior. Interested in fashion from a young age, Saint Laurent moved to Paris in 1954 to study fashion at L’École de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture. In 1955 he was introduced to Dior by Michel de Brunhoff, editor of French Vogue, and hired shortly after, rapidly rising to the position of assistant designer. Saint Laurent’s first collection in January 1958 introduced the Trapeze line, a silhouette that distanced itself from bourgeois elegance and responded to the lifestyles of women of his generation.
Artwork Details
(b) 9.0 × 86.5 cm (belt)
label, centre front neckline, woven in red on white silk: MADE IN FRANCE
Gift of Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM and Family through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gift Program, 2023