cocktail dress

Summary

The 'lips dress': a summer cocktail dress in black rayon printed with scarlet hearts and lips; gathered full bell sleeves; highered V-nekline with a red plastic made-up flower at the lowest point; unlined; woven label: 'Saint Laurent, rive gauche, Paris'. Bought and worn by Brenda Landman when living in Paris in 1971, staying in a hotel next to the recently opened Rive Gauche Boutique in the Rue de Tournon. YSL's SS 1971 collection was on a 1940s theme and seen as very controversial as it hinted at French collaboration in wartime. The dress was photographed for L'Officiel no 582 (1971) and described as 'dans un style tres 1940'.