Fashion Blog: Yves Saint Laurent Couture Dress for a fraction of the cost

On seeing the 2011 Fall Winter Collections I fell in love with the silk crepe pussy bow 70's style dresses offered by Gucci and Chloe, stunning, effortless chic. The price tags were as stunning as the dresses at around £1300. After a very rare trip to the cinema I saw Michelle Pfeiffer in Tim Burton's Dark Shadows and was under the spell of the seventies dress again. In 2012 I saw the 70's shirt dress return in the Spring Summer collections from Chloe and Gucci. I still really wanted one but could not see this piece as being enough of an investment item to spend £1300 as I wished to add a piece like this to general daywear, rather an occasion wear. I wanted to spend upto £350, for silk crepe and good workmanship.

Image Copyright Gucci 2011

So I started looking… and I came across a bygone gem, the Vogue designer sewing pattern. Up until the 1990s high end designers produced patterns for Vogue which were sold in stores. The earlier years saw the Vogue Couturier Design Patterns from the likes of Valentino, Lanvin and so many more. Then came Vogue Paris Originals, again with great designers such as Yves Saint Laurent, Chloe and Donna Karan to name a few. Today there are still a very small quantity new designer patterns sold from brands such as DKNY, but nothing like the choice of those available from the 1920s - 1990s.

So the only way to buy an original pattern is to seek out vintage pattern, online is the best source. I like sovintagepatterns.com and ebay.com for this.

I found this Vogue Paris Originals Yves Saint Laurent dress pattern on ebay and bought it for £1.04. Bargain. I then sought out the fabric, I wanted good quality medium weight silk crepe. At the time I was drooling over the Gucci Cornflower Blue Dress (culottes actually) from the Pre Fall 2011 Collection so I was looking for that particular shade of blue. I requested some fabric samples from NYFashionCentreFabrics.com, the online store has the best range of colours for silk crepe. The two samples arrived a few days later, Silk Crepe De Chine in Ultramarine and Bluebonnet (Cornflower Blue). Great Quality. The Silk Crepe De Chine fabric is $28.49 per yard and $1.99 for a sample swatch.

NYFashionCentreFabrics.com sends regular holiday offers and coupon codes if you register for emails.

The Cost Breakdown:

Vogue Paris Originals Yves Saint Laurent Vintage Dress Pattern £1.04 / $1.63 approx.
Postage £1.50 / $2.35 approx.
3 yards Silk Crepe De Chine in Blue Bonnet $85.47 / £54.60 approx.
Shipping extra based on the weight and destination.
Dressmaker charge was quoted at £100 / $156.00 approx.

Total £157.14 / $245.45