La Rive Gauche (The Left Bank) is the southern bank of the river Seine in Paris. Here, the river flows roughly westwards, cutting the city in two: the Rive Droite (Right Bank) to the north, and the Rive Gauche (Left Bank) to the south.

"Rive Gauche" or "Left Bank" generally refers to the Paris of an earlier era; the Paris of artists, writers and philosophers, including Pablo Picasso, Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine, Henri Matisse, Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and dozens of other members of the great artistic community at Montparnasse. The phrase implies a sense of bohemianism and creativity. Some of its famous streets are the Boulevard Saint-Germain, the Boulevard Saint-Michel and the Rue de Rennes.

The phrase has also become a name for a particular lifestyle, fashion or "look".^{[citation needed]} In 1966, Yves Saint-Laurent launched a ready-to-wear line by the name Rive Gauche. The collection was an attempt to democratise fashion, introducing elements of the garments of the lower classes into high fashion.^{[citation needed]}