A visit to Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris

''J'ai essayé de montrer que la mode est un art. J'ai suivi en cela les conseils de mon maître Christian Dior, et la leçon impérissable de mademoiselle Chanel. J'ai créé pour mon époque et j'ai essayé de prévoir ce que sera demain.''

Hi guys, hope you're fine, taking care of yourselves and #StayingatHome.

Today I'm gonna talk about one of my experiences during my first time in Paris and certainly one of the bests ever. Whenever and wherever I have the opportunity, I like to visit fashion exhibitions of great designers and in December of 2017 I made it to the Musée Yves Saint Laurent.

I looove fashion, but more than it, I love its history, specially during the 20th century, when it became stronger than ever representing our society. Back then womens had just won the right to vote, to drive cars, become pilots, smoke, go out alone, when all those activities were previously restricted to men. And guess who was one of the responsibles for so many changes? Yves Saint Laurent!

Born in 1936 Yves grew up in Oran, Algeria. As a child, he liked to observe the refined lifestyle of Oran’s society through his mother and her friends. When he was 17, he moved to Paris where he showed his sketches to Michel de Brunhoff, director of Vogue Paris, who published many of them. He also created paper dolls and different kind of illustrations. In 1956 he started a sarcastic comic strip, called ‘La Vilaine Lulu' and send them as postcards to his friends, clients and collaborators every year until 2007.

He was a genius, and in 1957 when he was only 21 years old he became head of the House of Dior after Christian Dior passed away, and in 1962, he founded his own brand with Pierre Bergé, YSL.

During the 60's and 70's Saint Laurent stood out in the world of haute couture as an innovator in several aspects related to fashion and behavior:

- Popularized Batnik looks (Slimline trousers and polo necks were stuck to skinny bodies, tight cotton shirts and accessorized with berets and scarves, turtlenecks, and horizontal striped shirts or no detailed designs on them.)

- Had quality clothes with affordable prices.

- Designed the Safari jackets for men and women.

- Extended his brand name to accessories such as perfumes, glasses and scarves.

- Popularized Pret-a-Porter (Ready to Wear)

- Was the first world stylist to use black models in fashion shows. - Created the first women's tuxedos better known as Le smoking in 1966, breaking with a series of paradigms and social impositions concerning women's, being seen as a sexual provocation, aimed at the woman who wanted to have another role, more active in society.

- Designed tall and thigh-high boots

I mean, we should thank God everyday for this men life, for all he's creation and for always standing out in the fashion world due to its sophistication and proposal to offer freedom for women's clothing.

Beatnik Style (Credits: Pinterest)

For all this reasons I was so happy and excited to visit the Museé Yves Saint Laurent in Paris, I mean, I could see some of his sketches and dress right in the front of me, things that changed our lives forever and that was pretty amazing.

Located in the 16th arrondissement at 5 avenue Marceau, Yves and Pierre bought the mansion shortly after Yves’ dismissal from Dior in 1974, giving life to his work for three decades. In 2002 it became the Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent and their main mission was to preserve and promote Yves Saint Laurent’s work. The museum’s allows visitors to appraise the creative process by immersing themselves in Saint Laurent’s universe exposing the designer’s journey to showcase his creativity and how he made fashion history in the place where Saint Laurent himself drew, designed and produced his clothing.

From what it known, Yves and Pierre had imagined that this house would become a museum one day because some of their first collections have hand-marked “m”s on the labels, meaning “museum”.

The exhibition has organized with a lot knowledge and competent curation, specially for the special care they have with every single piece exposed, all that because if the pieces stay too long in the light or humidity it starts to deteriorate. So in order to preserve the textiles, the museum rotates the clothes once in a while. It includes important designs as the the jumpsuit, safari jacket, the iconic ‘Le Smoking’ from 1966, the trench coat, including his collections inspired in his trips to China, Morocco, Spain or Russia.

In the exhibition you can see the most iconic pieces made by him, such as dresses, tuxedos, accessories, sketches (some never made), business photographs and videos. He was crazy about his work and for him, there was nothing more important in the world than his creations, and we can see it when walking by the personal office used by Yves. The museum is really careful to keep his office exactly as it was, leaving opened books and papers around, fabric rolls, sketches… it gives us the impression that he left the office for a minute and is coming back any second to finish what he was doing. His fashion shows were also held in these building until 1976, and after that his collection started to be presented at the Hotel Intercontinental one of the most luxurious hotels in the city, and that was when the shows became spectacles and became reference for Yves Saint Laurent fashion house shows nowadays.

Hommage à ma maison jacket video

Video Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris - Renouvellement du parcours inaugural

Tickets are available on their Official page here (Not during the Covid-19 situation).

Did you know the importance Yves have in the fashion world? If there's anything I can say is that, it's really worth the visit and I'm crazy to do it again.