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Archive · Paris15 September 2026

Yves Saint Laurent's Mondrian dress is pieced, not printed: the Met's record says each block of jersey is set in with the shaping hidden in the grid of seams

Yves Saint Laurent (@ysl) showed the Mondrian dresses in his Autumn-Winter 1965 couture collection. The Met's example, C.I.69.23 in its Costume Institute, is wool, a gift of Mrs. William Rand, and its record calls the construction a feat of dressmaking. The Kyoto Costume Institute's example, inventory AC5626, is a straight A-line in white, red and black wool jersey, and its record points to the highly sophisticated cutting of couture. Saint Laurent's museum in Paris says the book he drew on was by Michel Seuphor, that the dress was soon heavily copied, especially in the United States, and that Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé went on to own three abstract works by Mondrian.

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The post, as it ran

01YVES SAINT LAURENT'S MONDRIAN DRESS ISN'T PRINTED.
02EACH BLOCK OF COLOUR IS A SEPARATE PIECE SET INTO THE DRESS. THE EXAMPLES AT THE MET AND THE KYOTO COSTUME INSTITUTE ARE WOOL JERSEY.
03THE MET'S RECORD SAYS ALL THE SHAPING FOR THE BODY IS HIDDEN IN THE GRID OF SEAMS.
04HIS MUSEUM IN PARIS SAYS THE SQUARES WERE INLAID FROM INSIDE THE DRESS, SO THE SEAMS CAN'T BE SEEN.
05THE SAME MUSEUM SAYS HE DREW INSPIRATION FROM A BOOK ON MONDRIAN THAT HIS MOTHER HAD GIVEN HIM FOR CHRISTMAS.
06FOR ROLAND PETIT'S BALLET NOTRE-DAME DE PARIS, THE SAME TECHNIQUE WENT INTO LEOTARDS, IN SHEER TULLE AND BLACK VINYL.
07ROGER VIVIER MADE THE BLACK PUMPS WITH SQUARE BUCKLES WORN WITH THE DRESSES.
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