All Photos By Gail
Paco Rabanne presented his first fashion collection in 1966. It was entitled 12 Dresses in Unwearable Materials and included garments made from links of plastic fastened with metal hoops. Rabanne had proven that fabric, needle and thread were not altogether necessary to clothing design, and he quickly gained fame for his defiance of tradition.
Ready-to-wear Dress Circa 1966: Silver and Black Plastic Discs, Metal Hoops. Photographed in the Museum at FIT in Manhattan.
Photo By Gail
Paco Rabanne was first known as an accessories designer and his work was regularly featured in the pages of magazines such as Elle and Harper’s Bazaar. This bag was likely made after the designer has started his clothing line. It shows how his idea of “futuristic armor” was translated into an eye-catching accessory
Photographed in the Museum at FIT
Photos By Gail
Yves Saint Laurent’s fall 1965 collection was inspired by the paintings of Piet Mondrian. While it became one of Saint Laurent’s most famous collections, other designers had introduced similar designs before him. The Montreal Gazette claimed that color-blocked dresses by Michele Roiser had inspired Saint Laurent to “add a few black lines” to his own creations.
YSL dress seen here with a color block design by Lousi Feraud (circa 1967) on the left.
All Photos By Gail
French fashion journalist and designer Michèle Rosier (1930-2017), the daughter of Elle Magazine editor Hélène Gordon-Lazareff, ran her own popular ready-to-wear label, V de V was short for Vêtements de Vacance or Vacation Clothes. Continue reading Eye On Design: Ready-to-Wear Ski Jacket Circa 1966 By Michèle Rosier
All Photos By Gail
For reasons that take too long to talk about, I’m late to the game with my post on the exhibit Paris Refashioned: 1957-1968, which closed on April 15th, 2017. But why waste a collection of lovely photos when I could still post them here, in hope that they will entice you to attend the museum’s next exhibit, while you learn more about the history of French fashion! Continue reading Photos From Paris Refashioned: 1957-1968 at The Museum at FIT