A sweeping retrospective of the designer’s 40 years of creativity, Yves Saint Laurent: The Retrospective features a stunning selection of 200 haute couture garments along with numerous photographs, drawings, and films that illustrate the development of Saint Laurent’s style and the historical foundations of his work. Organized thematically, the presentation melds design and art to explore the full arc of Saint Laurent’s career, from his first days at Dior in 1958 through the splendor of his evening dresses from 2002. The DAM will be the only United States venue for the exhibition.

Yves Saint Laurent’s Life & Designs

The development of the Saint Laurent style and the fundamentals of his oeuvre are presented in a visually rich and dramatic way that walks visitors through his life and designs. They are grouped into these areas:

Birth of a Revolutionary Couturier

The exhibition starts with a display of Saint Laurent’s designs for Dior, including the 1958 “Trapeze” collection. With this collection, Saint Laurent anticipated the freedom movement of the 1960s.

A Gender Revolution

In this section, visitors can see how Saint Laurent created a gender revolution by allowing women to express themselves freely, melding the flair of a man’s suit with the seductiveness of woman’s clothing.

Yves Saint Laurent and Women

Another area displays the clothing of the historic women who wore and supported Saint Laurent, including Betty Catroux, Catherine Deneuve, Loulou de la Falaise, Françoise Giroud, Princess Grace of Monaco, Nan Kempner, Paloma Picasso, Diana Vreeland and H.R.H. Duchess of Windsor.

Creating a Furor

Celebrating the revolutionary styleSaint Laurent gave couture, a section is dedicated to his 1971 Scandal Collection which transported people back to the 1940s and a time of war and occupation. The press denounced but the customers adored this collection.

The Enchantment of the Exotic

In this area, the imaginary world of Saint Laurent is explored—especially a focus on his whimsical travels to China, India and Russia to create his collections using exotic materials, furs and feathers.

Dialogue with Artists and Writers

The art world takes center stage in a section that draws direct lines between the designer and the artists he admired. In 1965, Saint Laurent launched a collection inspired by Piet Mondrian, the early 20th century painter known for his distinctive style oflines and bold color combinations on flat surfaces. Mondrian’s work clearly inspired Saint Laurent in the first of many of the designer’s intersections with the art world.

The Last Ball

The magic of night and fashion is the focus of The Last Ball section, a succession of exquisite evening dresses from the glory days of haute couture.

Le Smoking

In this section, visitors are given a close look at 40 years of Saint Laurent creations through a wall of more than 30 tuxedos. The first ever “Le Smoking” (the French term for tuxedo) from 1966 faces a variety of other tuxedos, each representative of a fundamental work by Saint Laurent.

The Colors of Yves Saint Laurent

In this section, guests will move through the collision of colors Saint Laurent famously used in his designs with vibrant examples from his collections and hundreds of fabric samples.

Audio Tour:

All tickets to the exhibition include a free audio guide.

Bios:

Florence Müller

Chief Curator of Yves Saint Laurent: The Retrospective

Florence Müller is a fashion historian, former director-curator of the Union Française des arts du Costume (1987-93), curator of a number of exhibitions in France and abroad and associate professor at the Institut Français de la Mode (IFM). She was the chief curator of Yves Saint Laurent Style, hosted by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 2008 and the De Young Museum in 2009. She was the chief curator of Yves Saint Laurent with the oversight of Pierre Bergé.

Nathalie Crinière

Exhibition Designer of Yves Saint Laurent: The Retrospective

Nathalie Crinière is the director of an exhibition and interior design agency and works for both major cultural institutions and private clients. Her design record includes the Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé Collection for Christie’s in the nave of the Grand Palais; the redesigning of the children’s section at the Cité desSciences et de l’Industrie at La Villette; Dennis Hopper – le nouvel Hollywood at the Cinémathèque Française; Grace Kelly in Monaco at the Hôtel de Ville in Paris and at the Ekaterina Foundation in Moscow; Oum Kalsoum at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris; Yves Saint Laurent: Love at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Montreal, then at the De Young Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco; and Rock’n'Roll 39/59 at the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain in Paris. She recently won the competition to design the permanent collection spaces at the Louvre Abu Dhabi.

Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent

Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent is the accomplishment of 40 years of creation. Officially recognized as a public interest organization, it opened to the public on March 10, 2004.

The foundation retraces the history of fashion as created by Yves Saint Laurent, fashion that reveals the inner workings of society. Saint Laurent’s designs brought women self-assurance, audacity and power, while preserving their femininity. These clothes are part of 20th century art and design history. They have accompanied women’s emancipation in every domain, be it personal, social or political. All major models have been preserved, together with the entirety of his drawings and sketches from the very beginnings of his career.

The foundation’s goals:

• Conservation of the 5,000 garments, 15,000 accessories and 150,000 sketches, as well as press reports and articles, videos of the collection, cutting boards and handling slips — all testifying to Yves Saint Laurent’s creativity — under ideal conditions of air-conditioning, controlled humidity levels and acid-free paper.
• Organization of exhibitions devoted not only to Yves Saint Laurent and fashion, but also to painting, photography and design.
• Support for cultural, artistic and educational activities, among them the Autumn Festival in Paris, a celebration with theater, dance and exhibition, and the Palais de Tokyo, one of the largest organizations devoted to contemporary art in Europe.