In 1962, Yves Saint Laurent along with Pierre Berge, opened his own haute couture house at 30 bis rue Spontini in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, that later moved at 5 avenue Marceau on July 14, 1974. The haute couture house closed in October 2002 and became the Fondation Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge. Its primary mission is to conserve and promote Saint Laurent's work. In 1962 he also decided to set aside certain designs after each show and in 1982 the word museum first appeared in the ateliers' specifications sheets for these pieces, which were taken off the market and kept in special storerooms beggining in 1997. This legacy, composed of thousands of designs and all of the documents related to their creation, is unequaled in the fashion world. Today the hause couture house has been designated a "Musee de France" celebrating the creative genius of someone who remains one of the greatest couturiers of the twentieth century.
On the ground floor were the salons, where fashion shows were also held up until 1976, when they were presented at the Hotel Inter Continental. There the shows became true spectacles accompanied by music. The salon which housed the accessories, has remained unchanged. The first section brings together the designs that have come to define YSL's signature style. Each one borrows from menswear and has adapted to the female body. These garments once belonged exclusively to the utilitarian male wardrobe. Saint Laurent kept the cut, comfort and practical aspects of these pieces and adjusted them for a feminine silhouette in way that combined simplicity and elegance. All of these pieces were created in 1970, the same year as the start of the women's liberation movement.
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| Blue jacket, taken from an ultimate men style with golden pieces. |
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| In the middle the famous safari jacket. |
Each season was the occasion for a new collection. For each of his collections Yves Saint Laurent made countless sketches in Morocco, a country he first discovered in 1966. These sketches were later given to his ateliers. Later fabrics were chosen and fittings were carried out. Each design, along with the fabric swatch, was reproduced on an atelier's specification sheet- or Bible, as it was known. All the necessary details for creating the garment were recorded on it. Collection boards sorted by type were then made to give an overview of the fashion show. YSL first learned this practise while he was apprentice at Dior at the age of 20.
All of these garments were classified according to a specific type: suit, dress or coat. The program of a fashion show followed an entire day's wardrobe from morning to evening including a cocktail look. Haute couture was part of a way of life that attributed a specifitc outfit to each moment of the day. A collection was comprised of approximately one hundred designs, each accessorized and reflecting the inspiration of the artist, the moments, and the era.
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| Οriginal YSL sketches. |
Yves Saint Laurent participated in a long tradition of collaboration between haute couture houses and skilled craftspeople such as weavers, dyers, printers, embroiderers, plumassiers, goldsmiths and silversmiths. Each artisanal house had a specific focus as well as its own techniques and style. Textiles had to correspond to the draped effect the couturier wanted to create. They were chosen according to the structure of the weave that best fit the design's silhouette. The weave is determined by the way in which the threads are interlaced. Saint Laurent first chose the color and the ground weave. The fabric was then decorated with the desired pattern, which was woven, printed, embroidered or appliqued.
These garments which are true masterpieces attest to the skills that have been handed down over the years and which haved endured thanks to the couturier's rigor and perfectionism. The close relationships he established with these highly-skilled artisans made it possible to create his most elaborate designs. The quality of the materials that were used and the complex process involved in implementing them meant that hundred of hours of work were necessary to make a piece.
The couturier sought inspiration from a variety of sources. Through his "imaginary" or "armchair" travels, he came up with a dream vision of faraway lands, which was imbued with knowledge gleaned at once from his readings and direct contact with artwork. These various types of "exoticism" took Saint Laurent to Morocco, sub-Saharan Africa, Russia, Spain and Asia. He drew on the bright colors, shapes, and fabrics from each of these places to create a composition that was never a disguise but instead revealed his own imaginary vision of a distant place
Yves Saint Laurent explored the history of fashion through his designs. He transformed the antique togas worn by vestals into draped evening gowns. His medieval inspired gowns with embroidery recalling orfevrerie faithfully recreated the feminine silhouettes of the Middle Ages. He was also inspired by Renaissance dresses made of precious fabrics embroidedred with golden thread, seventeenth century gowns displaying the wealth and opulence of the royal court ( which aristocrats and courtesans would go on to popularize in the eighteenth century), and nineteenth century crinolinees. The designs that marked the twentieth century reflected the social changes and trends that punctuated it. From the Roaring Twenties to the retro style of the 1940s the modernity of these periods comes across in the couturier's creations which offer a vision at once admiring and distant.
These garments which are true masterpieces attest to the skills that have been handed down over the years and which haved endured thanks to the couturier's rigor and perfectionism. The close relationships he established with these highly-skilled artisans made it possible to create his most elaborate designs. The quality of the materials that were used and the complex process involved in implementing them meant that hundred of hours of work were necessary to make a piece.
The most beautiful trips I took were through books, on my couch, in my living room. - YSL
The couturier sought inspiration from a variety of sources. Through his "imaginary" or "armchair" travels, he came up with a dream vision of faraway lands, which was imbued with knowledge gleaned at once from his readings and direct contact with artwork. These various types of "exoticism" took Saint Laurent to Morocco, sub-Saharan Africa, Russia, Spain and Asia. He drew on the bright colors, shapes, and fabrics from each of these places to create a composition that was never a disguise but instead revealed his own imaginary vision of a distant place
The heart was one of his emblematic pieces of jewelry. Created in 1962 and made by the house of Scemama it served as a talisman during his haute couture and ready to wear fashion shows worn with a specific design of by a model Saint Laurent selected himself. In November 1999 he stated, " I turned the heart into a symbol. I made all kinds of variations on it; compacts, jewelry and handbags. In every color: ruby, sapphire, emerald, amethyst and rock crystal. I made dresses, scarves and fabrics using it. The heart never left me."The studio contrasted with the sumptuous salons and offered the kind of atmosphere Saint Laurent needed to create: a bright, quiet, neutral space with mirrored wall as its main feature. The bookshelves contain the publications that served as the couturier's main sources of inspiration. The simplicity of Saint Laurent's desk is striking. Two trestles support a board decorated with his favourite objects, souvenirs, and his indispensable pencils.
This setting offers a sense of the atmosphere that prevailed during preparations for the fashion show, when six of seven collaborators worked alongside him everyday.
" Accessories transform a garment and transform a woman." - YSL.
They were always an important part of his signature style. As he once stated " I like a dress to be simple and an accessory to be crazy." There were no limits on the imagination and the combinations of materials. Wood, metal, rhinestones, beads, feathers, ceramics, and passementerie abounded resulting in endless combinations.
" Perhaps my projects are too broad... I would like to be interested in many things which are in fact one and the same: theater, sets and costumes, decoration and illustration. On the other hand, I feel extremely attracted to fashion. My choice of career will undoubtedly be made based on an opportunity in either of these possibilities."
Saint Lauren an unparalleled draftsmen, displayed an approach that was at once pictorial in his use of color and material as well as graphic in the precise, lively, and contrasting lines of his drawings.
The wedding gown is always a much anticipated moment in a haute couture show. While wedding gowns were previously commissioned, they ended up being integrated into a collection and even became the highlight of a fashion show. Couturiers have played with both the shape and the traditonal white color of the wedding gown which was only adopted at the end of the nineteenth century.
"In order to live and survive every man has to have what Nietzsche called aesthetic phantomism" - YSL
Yves Saint Laurent persistently sought out his aesthetic phantoms among the painters, writers, composers and dancers he admired, surrounding himself with them in his " mental studio " . Rather than simply borrowing from them Saint Laurent enjoyed interpreting their art in his own designs.
"It could almost be said that works, like artesian wells, rise as high as the suffering in one's heart runs deep. Without knowing it I have been a part of that family. It is mine. I did not choose that fatal lineage. And yet thanks to it I have risen to the heights of creation, frequented the firemakers about whom Rimbaud spoke, found myself, and understood that the greatest encounter in one's life is the encounter with oneself. Still, I have chosen to bid farewell to this beloved metier. I am also bidding farewell to those aesthetic phantoms. I have known them since childhood and I chose this wonderful metier in order to renew with them. Thanks to them I have surrounded myself with a family that has helped, protected and loves me so much. That family is mine, and you can imagine that it breaks my heart to leave it, since I know full well that the most beautiful paradises of all are those that are lost." (2002)
Every piece in the museum is a prototype of YSL's work.
Informations were taken from visitor's guide.
Additional information is available at museeyslparis.com
Photos by Nephele Theofanopoulou.