Dior created his high-waisted, flared A-line in 1955, Yves Saint Laurent his trapeze-line dress in 1958, with a wide skirt that fell from the shoulder line, while Balmain countered with his own pencil-slim, fitted dresses. Dior's favourite couturier, Molyneux, retired and closed his house in 1951. Couture, and fashion generally, seemed to be hedging its bets, uncertain of the direction, fearful of the future and waiting, perhaps, for a sign from the zeitgeist; Courréges was to be the next catalyst, in 1964.