The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is currently displaying 145 of Yves Saint Laurent’s best ensembles, in a collaboration with Paris’ Fondation Pierre Berge Yves Saint Laurent and the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco. This presciently timed retrospective, which opened just two days before YSL’s death on June 1st, was inpsired by the fact that YSL had not had an exhibit since 1983 when the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York made him the first living designer to be showcased there.
The exposition takes a comprehensive look at YSL’s design process from his inspirations to his detailed sketches to the meticulous garment construction. It places particular emphasis on Saint Laurent’s wide-ranging idea sources. Inspired by exotic locales like Morocco, Russia and China, art, especially Mondrian, Picasso and Braque, and literature (he and I share a fondness for Oscar Wilde), his worldly and sophisticated sensibilities were reflected in his work. Evident from the display too, is the timelessness of Saint Laurent’s clothes. The green, blue and olive silk dress above was Nan Kempner’s. It was made in 1989, but would have been just as elegant at any point in the last 50 or 60 years. If you find yourself in Montreal, I urge you to go see this show. It runs until September 18.
Post a Comment