Yves Saint Laurent
The house that put women in the tuxedo — Le Smoking, Rive Gauche, and modern elegance itself.
Yves Saint Laurent founded his house in Paris in 1961 with Pierre Bergé after leading Dior in his early twenties, reshaping women's fashion with pieces like the 1965 Mondrian dress and the 1966 Le Smoking tuxedo. He opened Rive Gauche in 1966, among the first designer ready-to-wear boutiques. He retired in 2002; the house continues under Kering, rebranded Saint Laurent in 2012.
Paris, 1961. The couturier
who dressed the modern woman.
After leading Dior in his early twenties, Yves Saint Laurent founded his own house in Paris in 1961 with Pierre Bergé. Across the 1960s he reshaped what women could wear: the Mondrian shift dress (1965), Le Smoking tuxedo (1966), the safari jacket, and the sheer blouse — borrowing from menswear and the street and elevating both to couture.
In 1966 he opened Rive Gauche, among the first designer ready-to-wear boutiques, bringing high fashion to a wider audience. Yves Saint Laurent retired in 2002; the house continues under the Kering group, with its ready-to-wear line rebranded Saint Laurent in 2012. Its founder’s vocabulary still underpins how modern tailoring reads.
The house language.
- 01Le SmokingThe 1966 tuxedo for women — the single most influential garment in the house’s history.
- 02Menswear, reworkedSafari jackets, trouser suits, the pea coat — masculine forms recut for women with couture precision.
- 03Rive GaucheOne of the first luxury ready-to-wear lines, 1966 — high fashion made wearable.
- 04Art into clothThe Mondrian dress and later Pop and Ballets Russes collections — painting and culture rendered as clothing.
"To dress a woman in a man’s tuxedo and make it the more elegant of the two — that was the whole revolution."— Anemoia Vestiaire, on Saint Laurent
Silk, tailoring and line.
Saint Laurent lives in precise tailoring and fine cloth. Our material notes on silk and on tailoring explain what to look for in exactly these pieces — the make beneath the name.
The label is not
one label.
Labels and construction change considerably across the house’s eras — couture, Rive Gauche, and the post-2012 Saint Laurent rebrand are different propositions with different marks. A label alone rarely settles a date, which is why the cloth and the construction are worth reading first.
Why vintage YSL
is collected.
Yves-era Saint Laurent — roughly the 1960s through the 1990s — is among the most collected in twentieth-century fashion, marking specific moments that reshaped how women dress. Genuine examples have grown scarcer as they have been worn and archived.
Vintage is, in truth, the way to own that era.
Yves Saint Laurent in the archive.
About Yves Saint Laurent.
What was Le Smoking?
Le Smoking was the tuxedo suit for women that Yves Saint Laurent introduced in 1966. It is considered the single most influential garment in the house's history, taking a distinctly masculine form and making it, in the designer's own view, more elegant on a woman than the equivalent menswear.
What is the difference between Yves Saint Laurent and Saint Laurent?
They are the same house at different points in its history. Yves Saint Laurent founded the label in Paris in 1961 and retired in 2002; the house continued under the Kering group, and its ready-to-wear line was rebranded simply 'Saint Laurent' in 2012. Vintage pieces from the founder's era typically carry the original full name.
What was Rive Gauche?
Rive Gauche was the boutique Saint Laurent opened in 1966, among the first designer ready-to-wear lines in fashion. It brought high fashion to a wider audience beyond couture clients and was a significant part of how the house's aesthetic reached the mainstream.
What is Saint Laurent known for stylistically?
The house is known for reworking traditionally masculine forms — the tuxedo, the safari jacket, the trouser suit, the pea coat — for women with couture-level precision, as well as translating art and culture directly into clothing, such as the 1965 Mondrian shift dress.
Why is vintage YSL so collected?
Yves-era Saint Laurent, roughly the 1960s through the 1990s, marks specific moments that reshaped how women dress, and genuine examples have grown scarcer as they've been worn and archived over the decades. Vintage remains the most reliable way to own pieces from that defining era.