Anniversary exhibition dips Yves Saint Laurent Museum in gold

The Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris is celebrating the 60th anniversary of the eponymous fashion designer’s first collection with an exhibition celebrating his penchant for glitter and gold.

The “Gold by Yves Saint Laurent” exhibition runs until May 14, 2023 and is dedicated to the key role that gold played in the fashion designer’s work. More than forty of the designer’s haute couture and ready-to-wear dresses, accessories and jewelery will be on display, showing how essential color was to Yves Saint Laurent’s creations.

Yves Saint Laurent backstage at his Rive Gauche Fall/Winter 1977 collection. Photo: Guy Marineau

From the buttons on his canban jackets to dresses that appear to be made entirely of gold, no collection from the fashion designer has escaped his “golden touch”. Saint Laurent’s mastery of gold is evident in the use of fabrics such as brocade, lace, sequins and leather, as well as intricate embroidery, jewelry and perfume.

Yves Saint Laurent: “I love gold, it’s a magical color”

The exhibition is curated by Elsa Janssen, who has been the museum’s director since March 2022, in collaboration with the museum’s curatorial team and with the artistic participation of Anna Klossowski. Klossowski is the daughter of Yves Saint Laurent’s muse Loulou de La Falaise and the designer’s goddaughter. The exhibition explores Saint Laurent’s use of gold in a chronological thematic journey through ornaments, fabrics and exquisite materials. At the same time, the exhibition celebrates how this shade empowered women and how Saint Laurent popularized gold for women.

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Yves Saint Laurent Muse Lulu De La Falaise. Photo: Arthur Elgort for Vogue Italia

Gold is perceived as a sign of wealth, power and prestige and Saint Laurent used this symbolism to create creations for the modern woman. The fashion designer showed that gold is more than just an aesthetic effect. He made gold an expression of female power. He put golden details in a look, for example with golden buttons, or played with different materials such as lamé, leather and brocade. Saint Laurent was also known for his techniques ranging from braided fabrics to embroidery and topstitching of fabrics.

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Gold buttons from the designer’s studio. Photo: Yves Saint Laurent Museum Paris / Matthieu Lavanchy

Of particular note are the jeweled dress from the Fall-Winter 1966 collection photographed by David Bailey, the sequined dresses by Zizi Jeanmaire and Catherine Deneuve, and an evening dress with a molten metal effect that Violeta Sanchez created in the Haute Couture collection for Spring/Summer 1981 wore. Also on display in the exhibition is the “Gypsy dress” from the spring/summer 2000 haute couture collection, made from a transparent fabric embellished with golden particles.

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The Gypsy dress from the Spring/Summer 2000 Haute Couture collection. Photo: Yves Saint Laurent / Guy Marineau

Another part of the exhibition is dedicated to the gold buttons that the fashion designer uses as jewelry. From the wool coat inspired by a sailor’s wardrobe from the spring/summer 1962 haute couture collection, with gold-plated buttons reminiscent of the braided rope on board a ship, to the autumn/winter haute couture collection 1966, when buttons adorned cocktail and evening dresses – the button is the center of attention here.

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A suit from the Fall/Winter 1995 Haute Couture collection. Photo: Yves Saint Laurent / Guy Marineau

In addition to Saint Laurent’s creations, the museum invited Belgian sculptor Johan Creten to exhibit five works. These underline that gold has always been a source of inspiration for artists.

This translated and edited post previously appeared on FashionUnited.uk.

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