It is in this Second Empire-style manor in Paris’ 16th arrondissement that the myth of one of the boldest French couturiers began. With an averted eye, Yves Saint Laurent had that ever so coveted ability – he could sense, well before others, the fashion of tomorrow. Confiding management of his talents to Pierre Bergé, his lifetime companion, this man gave himself the task of revolutionizing fashion to overturn the morals of an entire era. The street interested him far more than exhibitions. His artistic choices made him one of the only artist/couturiers; from this alchemy was born “le smoking” for women, the safari jacket, the “pop-art” collection, the peacoat, the Mondrian dress, and what would long remain forgotten as having come from him: conical breasts, well before Jean-Paul Gaultier adapted them. From his studio, Yves Saint Laurent commodified the movements of female emancipation that were shaking the foundations of France, giving a head start to women that, at least when it came to their wardrobes, found themselves, in the late 60s, on equal footing with men.
He left his fingerprint on the 20th century, and today, the home of his genius is breathing the very trace he left: the exhibit Entre couture et culture is the perfect occasion to plunge into the underside of Yves Saint Laurent’s creative process. As if nothing could impede the immortality of an artist’s work, his original sketches, still annotated with directives for his workshops, will be offered up for public viewing. The visitor can directly plunge into the emblematic and anecdotal universe of this great imaginary: collection boards, haute-couture models, runway photos; the work of Monsieur Saint Laurent is delivered in a lasting way, like he allowed women to reveal their secrets with the sureness and the audacity of eternity. In the library, fashion sketches, paper dolls, costume and decor sketches for music halls, ballet, cinema, and theater, posters, and comic books all collide, stretching out amidst a collection of charms, and the only desk, made of a table on supports, that stands like a throne in the middle of the studio. Here, the pump of runways fades before this locale’s bare atmosphere, where the most beautiful pieces of French fashion saw the light of day before becoming concrete and absolute references as garments… A place that no doubt still shelters this man’s inspiration, which your tour guide will have the pleasure of conveying to you.
Yves Saint Laurent : entre couture et culture
5 avenue Marceau
75116 Paris
Until September 30, 2013
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