Paisley smock dress by Yves Saint Laurent for the Rive Gauche ready-to-wear line. Dating to the late 1970s, this dress is thought to be from the Fall-Winter 1976 collection, which distilled ideas from Yves Saint Laurent's groundbreaking haute couture collection of the same season - known variously as the 'Russian' collection, the 'Ballet Russes' collection or simply the 'Peasant' collection. Both the haute couture collection and Rive Gauche collection that followed it presented looks inspired by Russian folk dress and Léon Bakst’s costumes for the Ballet Russes. Full-skirted, billowing ensembles in vibrant jewel tones were styled with an array of shawls, head scarves, fur hats, and tasseled passementerie belts.

Yves Saint Laurent began his career at the house of Dior. After fighting in the Algerian War, Saint Laurent opened his own fashion house in 1962 with his business partner Pierre Bergé. This dress comes from his Rive Gauche ready-to-wear line which was launched in 1966 and sold in his own franchised chain of boutiques. The first Rive Gauche shop opened on the left bank of the River Seine in Paris in 1966, to great success. Offering ready-to-wear at more affordable prices than Saint Laurent's couture designs, slightly lower quality fabrics were used to ensure that the garments remained within the Rive Gauche price range.

Promoting a more democratised approach to fashion, the Rive Gauche line sought to overhaul the outmoded 'total' looks of couture, bringing high fashion to a wider audience through mix-and-match pieces that encouraged experimentation and personalisation. Rive Gauche separates, such as trousers, blouses and skirts, could be combined with other garments that were less (or more) expensive, allowing women to create a wardrobe of 'essentials' that suited their individual tastes and budgets. Legitimising ready-to-wear as a credible arena for high fashion - without a couture price-tag - Saint Laurent set a precedent which many fashion houses of his era followed.