We have prepared a small selection of digitized archives from the fashion house that were hidden from public view for a long time. Yves Saint Laurent’s main partner, Pierre Bergé, once opened the Saint Laurent archives so that people studying fashion history could fully immerse themselves in the brand. One especially fascinating section is the Paper Doll collection: it features 11 paper dolls designed by Yves Saint Laurent, each with a variety of outfits.
Yves Saint Laurent loved sketching and creating clothes for paper dolls since childhood.
When he was a young student, he secretly made sketches and drawings during lessons, and also collected cut-out mannequins from magazines of his fashion house.
The paper dolls became the main models for the couturier’s creations after he imagined his fashion house, "Yves Mathieu Saint Laurent Haute Couture Place," in 1952. They became the “stars” of the Autumn-Winter 1953 and Autumn-Winter 1954 collections, with wardrobes consisting of 437 garments.
By the way, the black dress with the magnificent full skirt you can see in the photo above became a symbol of an entire fashion era. It reflected the aesthetics of the 1950s and Christian Dior’s New Look, where Yves Saint Laurent worked for several years.
Most of the paper dolls have beautiful names such as "Sarbakan," "West Indies," "Nightingale," "Ciel de Paris," and more.
We are also attaching some additional archival clothing models created by the young Yves Saint Laurent for you to explore.
Yves Saint Laurent loved sketching and creating clothes for paper dolls since childhood.
When he was a young student, he secretly made sketches and drawings during lessons, and also collected cut-out mannequins from magazines of his fashion house.
The paper dolls became the main models for the couturier’s creations after he imagined his fashion house, "Yves Mathieu Saint Laurent Haute Couture Place," in 1952. They became the “stars” of the Autumn-Winter 1953 and Autumn-Winter 1954 collections, with wardrobes consisting of 437 garments.
By the way, the black dress with the magnificent full skirt you can see in the photo above became a symbol of an entire fashion era. It reflected the aesthetics of the 1950s and Christian Dior’s New Look, where Yves Saint Laurent worked for several years.
Most of the paper dolls have beautiful names such as "Sarbakan," "West Indies," "Nightingale," "Ciel de Paris," and more.
We are also attaching some additional archival clothing models created by the young Yves Saint Laurent for you to explore.
