1966
YVES SAINT LAURENT
Dress
Autumn/winter 1966–67 haute couture
Yves Saint Laurent, French, born Algeria, 1936–2008
Black wool twill with synthetic pearls and crystals
Gift of Kimberly Knitwear Inc., 1974 (1974.137.9a, b)
2011
PRADA
Dress
Autumn/winter 2011–12
Prada, Italian, founded 1913
Black synthetic compound weave
Courtesy PRADA
With youth-oriented aspirations, fashions of the 1960s became increasingly spare and revealing. In a trend led by London designers including Mary Quant, hemlines crept up, revealing the knees by the mid-1960s and reaching greater heights in the ensuing years. By 1964 French couturiers including Pierre Cardin, André Courrèges, and Paco Rabanne had distilled the youthful spirit into a design that would become the defining silhouette of the period: a collarless, short-sleeved or sleeveless, low-waisted shift ending above the knees, often featuring large patch pockets. Yves Saint Laurent conceived this cocktail dress version by employing satin trim along the sleeve, neck, and hem edges and pearl and crystal buttons at the belt loops.
In Miuccia Prada’s reinterpretation, the 1960s paradigm is a shorthand for youthfulness. The designer featured this sleeveless shift with a belted, lowered waist in her autumn/winter 2011–12 collection, which reflected on the archetype of the ingenue. Prada uses her designs to examine competing images of femininity. In choosing the 1960s as the starting point and by introducing a bare back to this ostensibly girlish style, the designer complicates the notion of innocence with touches of worldliness.
In Miuccia Prada’s reinterpretation, the 1960s paradigm is a shorthand for youthfulness. The designer featured this sleeveless shift with a belted, lowered waist in her autumn/winter 2011–12 collection, which reflected on the archetype of the ingenue. Prada uses her designs to examine competing images of femininity. In choosing the 1960s as the starting point and by introducing a bare back to this ostensibly girlish style, the designer complicates the notion of innocence with touches of worldliness.