In his first collection for the House of Dior after Christian Dior's sudden death in 1957, Yves Saint Laurent elaborated upon the looser lines that Dior had been promoting in his last year. Named for the apparatus from which acrobats propel themselves into the air, the “Trapeze” collection featured dresses with loose backs that appeared weightless and free of constraints. Yet, just as the acrobat must return to the trapeze, this liberated form was tethered to the body by an understructure that made the design possible.