Dress Front of dress

Fashion and art interact in this dress by Yves Saint Laurent, which was inspired by artist Piet Mondrian's color block paintings. Saint Laurent used the flatness of the sheath silhouette to suggest the two-dimensionality of a painted canvas. He designed several versions of this dress, each one unique in its color block design. Unlike the paintings, however, where the design is a surface application, the color blocking is integral to the construction of the dress, requiring the precision of couture pattern making and sewing. The dress was widely copied and both the original and a copy were featured in the 2015 Museum at FIT exhibition Faking It.