Yves Saint Laurent
OCT.06.2011 ──────── JAN.08.2012
Yves Saint Laurent
First Pants Suit
Haute Couture Collection
Spring-Summer, 1967
© Hulton-Deutsch / Corbis / Latinstock
Exhibition
OCT.06.2011 ── JAN.08.2012
Location
Recoletos Exhibition Hall
Paseo Recoletos 23, 28004 Madrid
The exhibition
The show, produced in collaboration with Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent, examined the evolution of the French designer from his beginnings at Dior to the magnificence of his evening gowns. The staging of the creations selected for the exhibition was conceived as a theatrical progression from YSL’s beginnings as a designer, with the famous “Trapèze” collection (1958), to the splendor of his evening gowns.
The exhibition was divided into eleven thematic spaces. Mannequins dressed in haute-couture and prèt-à-porter designs were followed by 80 drawings that historically framed the different collections, culminating in the magnificence of the evening gowns and the apotheosis of color that concluded the exhibition. The different spaces showed the artistic and cultural inspirations of an artist who combined the desire to dress everyday people with exclusive models designed for the woman of his dreams. In fact, with the collection Saint Laurent Rive Gauche, Yves Saint Laurent became the first major designer to launch a prèt-à-porter line.