John Galliano Spring/Summer 2008

Diane von Furstenberg introduced the iconic jersey wrap dress in 1974. Originally inspired by ballerina tops, her true "eureka" moment occurred after seeing Julie Nixon Eisenhower on television wearing a DVF wrap blouse paired with a skirt. This prompted the designer to merge the two pieces into a single, seamless garment.

Crafted from stretchy, wrinkle-resistant jersey knit, the dress modernized the American sportswear tradition. It was incredibly versatile and flattering, allowing women to easily transition from the corporate office during the day to glamorous events at night. Arriving at the height of the 1970s women's liberation movement, the dress became a powerful symbol of independence and practical elegance for the modern working woman.

The design was a massive commercial phenomenon. Within just a couple of years, she had sold over a million dresses. The overwhelming success landed her on the cover of Newsweek in 1976, which famously declared her the most marketable woman in fashion since Coco Chanel.

Tracing the lineage of Yves Saint Laurent and its Creative Directors is an exercise in corporate intrigue, controversial rebrands, and, of course, beautiful collections. and. It began when Yves himself handpicked Alber Elbaz to succeed him on ready-to-wear in 1998, only for Elbaz to be ousted after just a few seasons once the Gucci Group acquired the house and installed its own heir to the throne, Tom Ford, in 2000. When Ford exited in 2004, Stefano Pilati took over, softening the house's harder edges for nearly a decade before Hedi Slimane arrived in 2012 and made the era-defining, controversial decision to drop "Yves" from the ready-to-wear branding entirely, rebranding the line simply as Saint Laurent. Anthony Vaccarello took the reins in 2016, and yesterday, September 29, 2026, he marked exactly ten years at the house with a Spring/Summer 2027 show staged outdoors at the Trocadero fountain, the Eiffel Tower glittering gold in the background to match a collection of gold-embroidered dresses, brocade skirts, and gold trench coats. Charlotte Gainsbourg performed a song in a classic Saint Laurent black suit before Vaccarello himself came out to applause, smiling and waving to a front row that included Rosé of Blackpink, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Eddie Redmayne, and Rami Malek. No official word has come from the house itself, but persistent reports across the industry suggest this emotional, career-spanning show may have been his last as creative director. It was beautiful!

In August 1955, Richard Avedon traveled to Paris to photograph the couture collections for Harper's Bazaar editor-in-chief Carmel Snow. Rather than shoot in a studio, he staged the shoot at the Cirque d'Hiver, a real working circus in the 11th arrondissement. He later described the moment: "I saw the elephants under an enormous skylight and in a second I knew... there was the potential here for a kind of dream image." Model Dovima wore a sleek Dior evening gown with a flowing sash, a piece actually designed by a then-young staffer at the house named Yves Saint Laurent, years before he launched his own label. Though the elephants each had one foot chained to the floor, they remained restless and potentially dangerous throughout the shoot, and Dovima had to hold her pose as they moved behind her. Published in the September 1955 issue of Harper's Bazaar, the image is now widely regarded as one of the single most iconic fashion photographs of the 20th century.