KCIDigital Archives

The KCI Digital Archives on the KCI website presents image and text information for the objects in the collection, arranged in chronological order.

Dress

© The Kyoto Costume Institute, photo by Taishi Hirokawa

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Dress

Spring/Summer 1967

Designer
Yves Saint Laurent
Brand
Yves Saint Laurent
Label
YVES SAINT LAURENT PARIS
Material
Beige silk organdy base embroidered with metallic threads, beads, wooden beads and rhinestones; mesh-like beading without backing around waist.
Inventory Number(s)
AC9464 97-21-2

This dress, presented as one of the "African Look" collection, fascinated people by bringing the African primitive beauty, formerly discovered by Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) and Henri Matisse (1869–1954), into the limelight of the fashion.
This dress is elaborately embroidered with 20 types of beads including sea shells, wooden beads, and animal-teeth-shaped beads, which had rarely been used for Haute Couture before, as well as several sorts of colored threads. We can see here the very cream of handworks, from the highly advanced and precise techniques of the embroidery studios. In the 1960s, Haute Couture created innovative designs, while observing its tradition.

1960s