The legendary “Mondrian” dress by Yves Saint Laurent
Perhaps everyone is familiar with Coco Chanel’s little black dress, but there is another no less iconic dress in the fashion world — the Mondrian dress!
Its author is Yves Saint Laurent, but he did not come up with the famous print himself — he was inspired by the work of Dutch abstractionist Piet Mondrian.
The designer released a collection Fall-Winter 1965–1966 consisting of dresses, repeating the artist’s paintings in the style of neoplasticism. They were a real fashion revolution for the sixties.
The dresses themselves were simple cut pieces without collar and sleeves with images of squares and rectangles filled with bright colors — red, blue and yellow.
Originally the fashion designer used knitwear in his product, but now tailors use different fabrics when quoting this dress.
The idea of transferring abstract painting onto fabric in the creation of the print was revolutionary at the time! Mondrian, not being particularly well known during his lifetime, became world famous overnight.
To this day, Mondrian’s work continues to inspire painters and designers. References we see everywhere in the design of clothes, shoes and furniture.
For example, in the Karl Lagerfeld spring-summer 2020 collection you can see motifs from the famous painting.
What do you think is the relevance of such a dress now? Would you like to have a Mondrian dress in your closet?
Author of the column: Julia Kuznetsova
