PARIS — “Sooner or later, my identify shall be inscribed in gold letters on the Champs-Elysées,” a 15-year-old Yves Saint Laurent as soon as advised his household.
Together with his identify writ giant in trend and France, the “Gold: Les Ors d’Yves Saint Laurent” exhibition opening Friday considers the position of this valuable metallic within the late couturier’s work.
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Its idea got here to museum director Elsa Janssen, who additionally serves as curator for this exhibition, when she delved into the establishment’s reserves. “I noticed gold all over the place. It sparkled — lamé, belts, footwear — it was fabulous,” she recalled.
Six chapters grew from an preliminary collection of 40 textile creations, retracing 40 years of trend but in addition a four-decade-long slice of life within the twentieth century.
Opening the exhibition are three jackets with gilded buttons that nod to the wool peacoat that opened his 1962 high fashion present. Ornamental gold buttons have been a logo of Saint Laurent’s want to “illuminate his lady” regardless of his distaste for daytime jewellery, defined the curator.
Subsequent to them on the wall are one other trio, this time gilded sculptures by Belgian sculptor Johan Creten. At a preview, the artist defined that these items, from a collection titled “Zwam” and subtitled “Glories,” linked to the concept of creation, of the divine but in addition to the seductive and harmful duality behind the glitz and glamour of recognition.
“These are two parts that contact at all times and have been at all times [present] in his work and life,” stated the artist, who additionally preferred the concept of materializing Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé’s lifelong gathering of artwork of all epochs by collaborating.
Past their oval form and texture that unintentionally nods to buttons, they symbolize Jansson’s want to transcend thematic readings of Saint Laurent’s creations and present the late couturier as “probably the most ‘artist’ of all couturiers,” one with a “magical energy” that noticed him “remodel all the things he touched into gold.”
All through the exhibition, if outfits opulent in texture and ornament exemplify the couturier’s want to empower ladies with bared legs, energy fits or the trimmings of masculine the Aristocracy, it’s that concept of a Midas contact that comes throughout the strongest.
Glittering from each floor are the “golden scissors” award he acquired, physique casts created in collaboration with sculptor Claude Lalanne in 1969, the “Champagne” fragrance that was later renamed to “Yvresse” after lawsuits by France’s Champagne producers and even hair changed 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 assortment.
“He was obsessed by blond hair, its purity,” a proclivity that continued within the tresses of lifelong muses Catherine Deneuve and Betty Catroux, Janssen mused.
Upstairs, the part is devoted to glittering nightlife that was without delay a supply of inspiration and escape for the couturier, particularly in a mirrored room recreating the 1978 opening night time of the Palace membership the place the gown code was “tuxedo, night robe or something that fits the event.”
Mingling among the many Rive Gauche and high fashion silhouettes is a deceptively easy black tux figuring Saint Laurent himself, whose voice could be heard on the soundtrack, blended with music of period.
On the wall is a pell-mell of social gathering snapshots that embody the playful, joyful aspect of the person behind the couture home, 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 round gender-swapping.
It bolstered the concept past an exacting and terrific trend determine, Saint Laurent was “photo voltaic, an epicurean with a deep notion of pleasure, like a festive bubble,” as Janssen put it.
Again on the bottom ground, to embody the jewellery that sprang from his lasting collaboration with Loulou de la Falaise on costume jewellery, Janssen known as upon editor of artwork objects Anna Klossowski, additionally her daughter and his goddaughter, for the “Gentle Me Up!” set up that shows equipment in a chronological and chromatical retelling of a long time of their collaboration.
Taking satisfaction of place is the 1966 gold night gown that options within the David Bailey shot serving because the exhibition’s signature. “You’ll be able to see how Egypt and the pharaohs have been a middle of curiosity for him, as did the reliquaries of church buildings in addition to the then-newly launched [Joseph L.] Mankiewicz’s ‘Cleopatra’ that includes Elizabeth Taylor, all the things that got here collectively in his head by this gown embellished with semi-precious stones,” stated Janssen.
The final showcases provided embroideries by samples and silhouettes livened up by specialist ateliers Hurel, Vermont, Pierre Mesrine and Lesage, in addition to his knack for stage costumes and surrealist declarations — from Jean Cocteau’s phrases to the self-fulfilling prophecy made by his 15-year-old self.
Janssen hoped guests will emerge “warmed by the sunshine [Saint Laurent] brings” by the “pleasure, splendor, emotion in addition to the power of his inventive genius” who turned an icon.
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