“One day, my name will be inscribed in gold letters on the Champs-Elysées,” a 15-year-old Yves Saint Laurent once told his family.
With his name writ large in fashion and France, the “Gold: Les Ors d’Yves Saint Laurent” exhibition opening Friday considers the role of this precious metal in the late couturier’s work.
Its concept came to museum director Elsa Janssen, who also serves as curator for this exhibition, when she delved into the institution’s reserves. “I saw gold everywhere. It sparkled — lamé, belts, shoes — it was fabulous,” she recalled.
Six chapters grew from an initial selection of 40 textile creations, retracing 40 years of fashion but also a four-decade-long slice of life in the 20th century.
Opening the exhibition are three jackets with gilded buttons that nod to the wool peacoat that opened his 1962 haute couture show. Decorative gold buttons were a symbol of Saint Laurent’s desire to “illuminate his woman” despite his distaste for daytime jewelry, explained the curator.
Next to them on the wall are another trio, this time gilded sculptures by Belgian sculptor Johan Creten. At a preview, the artist explained that these pieces, from a series titled “Zwam” and subtitled “Glories,” connected to the idea of creation, of the divine but also to the seductive and dangerous duality behind the glitz and glamour of recognition.
“Those are two elements that touch always and were always [present] in his work and life,” said the artist, who also liked the idea of materializing Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé’s lifelong collecting of art of all epochs by participating.
Beyond their oval shape and texture that unintentionally nods to buttons, they symbolize Jansson’s desire to go beyond thematic readings of Saint Laurent’s creations and show the late couturier as “the most ‘artist’ of all couturiers,” one with a “magical power” that saw him “transform everything he touched into gold.”
Throughout the exhibition, if outfits opulent in texture and decoration exemplify the couturier’s desire to empower women with bared legs, power suits or the trappings of masculine nobility, it is that idea of a Midas touch that comes across the strongest.
Its concept came to museum director Elsa Janssen, who also serves as curator for this exhibition, when she delved into the institution’s reserves. “I saw gold everywhere. It sparkled — lamé, belts, shoes — it was fabulous,” she recalled.
Six chapters grew from an initial selection of 40 textile creations, retracing 40 years of fashion but also a four-decade-long slice of life in the 20th century.
Opening the exhibition are three jackets with gilded buttons that nod to the wool peacoat that opened his 1962 haute couture show. Decorative gold buttons were a symbol of Saint Laurent’s desire to “illuminate his woman” despite his distaste for daytime jewelry, explained the curator.
Next to them on the wall are another trio, this time gilded sculptures by Belgian sculptor Johan Creten. At a preview, the artist explained that these pieces, from a series titled “Zwam” and subtitled “Glories,” connected to the idea of creation, of the divine but also to the seductive and dangerous duality behind the glitz and glamour of recognition.
“Those are two elements that touch always and were always [present] in his work and life,” said the artist, who also liked the idea of materializing Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé’s lifelong collecting of art of all epochs by participating.
Beyond their oval shape and texture that unintentionally nods to buttons, they symbolize Jansson’s desire to go beyond thematic readings of Saint Laurent’s creations and show the late couturier as “the most ‘artist’ of all couturiers,” one with a “magical power” that saw him “transform everything he touched into gold.”
Throughout the exhibition, if outfits opulent in texture and decoration exemplify the couturier’s desire to empower women with bared legs, power suits or the trappings of masculine nobility, it is that idea of a Midas touch that comes across the strongest.
Glittering from every surface are the “golden scissors” award he received, body casts created in collaboration with sculptor Claude Lalanne in 1969, the “Champagne” perfume that was later renamed to “Yvresse” after lawsuits by France’s Champagne producers and even hair turned into spun gold – a braided headdress figuring a Rapunzel-like cascade of blond tresses, as worn by the bride of the Saint Laurent fall 1967 collection.
“He was obsessed by blond hair, its purity,” a proclivity that continued in the tresses of lifelong muses Catherine Deneuve and Betty Catroux, Janssen mused.
Upstairs, the section is dedicated to glittering nightlife that was at once a source of inspiration and escape for the couturier, especially in a mirrored room recreating the 1978 opening night of the Palace club where the dress code was “tuxedo, evening gown or anything that suits the occasion.”
Mingling among the Rive Gauche and haute couture silhouettes is a deceptively simple black tux figuring Saint Laurent himself, whose voice can be heard on the soundtrack, blended with music of era.
On the wall is a pell-mell of party snapshots that embody the playful, joyful side of the man behind the couture house, surrounded by the likes of Catroux, Loulou de la Falaise, Grace Jones, Andy Warhol, Paloma Picasso or Mick Jagger, sporting a curly blonde wig for a soirée around gender-swapping.
It reinforced the idea that beyond an exacting and terrific fashion figure, Saint Laurent was “solar, an epicurean with a deep notion of joy, like a festive bubble,” as Janssen put it.
Back on the ground floor, to embody the jewelry that sprang from his lasting collaboration with Loulou de la Falaise on costume jewelry, Janssen called upon editor of art objects Anna Klossowski, also her daughter and his goddaughter, for the “Light Me Up!” installation that displays accessories in a chronological and chromatical retelling of decades of their collaboration.
Taking pride of place is the 1966 gold evening dress that features in the David Bailey shot serving as the exhibition’s signature. “You can see how Egypt and the pharaohs were a center of curiosity for him, as did the reliquaries of churches as well as the then-newly released [Joseph L.] Mankiewicz’s ‘Cleopatra’ featuring Elizabeth Taylor, everything that came together in his head through this dress embellished with semi-precious stones,” said Janssen.
“He was obsessed by blond hair, its purity,” a proclivity that continued in the tresses of lifelong muses Catherine Deneuve and Betty Catroux, Janssen mused.
Upstairs, the section is dedicated to glittering nightlife that was at once a source of inspiration and escape for the couturier, especially in a mirrored room recreating the 1978 opening night of the Palace club where the dress code was “tuxedo, evening gown or anything that suits the occasion.”
Mingling among the Rive Gauche and haute couture silhouettes is a deceptively simple black tux figuring Saint Laurent himself, whose voice can be heard on the soundtrack, blended with music of era.
On the wall is a pell-mell of party snapshots that embody the playful, joyful side of the man behind the couture house, surrounded by the likes of Catroux, Loulou de la Falaise, Grace Jones, Andy Warhol, Paloma Picasso or Mick Jagger, sporting a curly blonde wig for a soirée around gender-swapping.
It reinforced the idea that beyond an exacting and terrific fashion figure, Saint Laurent was “solar, an epicurean with a deep notion of joy, like a festive bubble,” as Janssen put it.
Back on the ground floor, to embody the jewelry that sprang from his lasting collaboration with Loulou de la Falaise on costume jewelry, Janssen called upon editor of art objects Anna Klossowski, also her daughter and his goddaughter, for the “Light Me Up!” installation that displays accessories in a chronological and chromatical retelling of decades of their collaboration.
Taking pride of place is the 1966 gold evening dress that features in the David Bailey shot serving as the exhibition’s signature. “You can see how Egypt and the pharaohs were a center of curiosity for him, as did the reliquaries of churches as well as the then-newly released [Joseph L.] Mankiewicz’s ‘Cleopatra’ featuring Elizabeth Taylor, everything that came together in his head through this dress embellished with semi-precious stones,” said Janssen.
The last showcases offered embroideries through samples and silhouettes livened up by specialist ateliers Hurel, Vermont, Pierre Mesrine and Lesage, as well as his knack for stage costumes and surrealist declarations — from Jean Cocteau’s words to the self-fulfilling prophecy made by his 15-year-old self.
Janssen hoped visitors will emerge “warmed by the sunshine [Saint Laurent] brings” through the “joy, splendor, emotion as well as the force of his creative genius” who became an icon.
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