BIG in the ROM Costume and Textile Gallery

BIG at the ROM with John Galliano for Dior Spring/Summer 2011
Photo by Ingrid Mida 2012

This exquisite couture outfit by John Galliano for Dior from Spring/Summer 2011 is the centrepiece of the latest installation called BIG which will open at the Royal Ontario Museum's Patricia Harris Textile Gallery of Textiles and Costume on November 3, 2012.

Yves Saint Laurent - Classicism and Transgression - A Talk by Laurent Cotta at the Bata Shoe Museum

Yves Saint Laurent Pant Suits

Laurent Cotta, the fashion historian, curator and genius behind this summer's Madame Gres exhibition in Paris and the 18th Century in Contemporary Fashion at the Grand Trianon in Versailles (among his many other accomplishments) spoke last night at the Bata Shoe Museum about Yves Saint Laurent.

Monsieur Cotta explained how Yves Saint Laurent combined elements of classicism and transgression in his designs for women, reviewing Yves Saint Laurent's career from his early days at Dior through the 1960s and 1970s. This period was a pivotal time in the history of contemporary fashion for women and Saint Laurent led the way. Yves Saint Laurent believed in comfort, ease and elegance for women and was innovative in his designs  - often achieving a heightened degree of femininity through the seemingly paradoxical use of masculine attire like "le smoking" and the pant suit.

I took copious notes as my thesis will be about the radical changes in fashion for women in the 1960s. I also asked Monsieur Cotta what he was working on for next year. Although the Gallera Musee de la Mode et du Costume  is closed for renovations until 2013, he said he was working on an exhibition about the History of Haute Couture and also an exhibition on the private archives of Balenciaga. These exhibitions will be shown at other venues in Paris next summer and I will look forward to seeing them.

But first to Iowa where I will close my speech with a quote from Pierre Berge about fashion and art.

"I don't know if fashion is art, but it needs an artist to make it."

Notice of copyright: 
All text and images on this blog are the copyright of Ingrid Mida, unless otherwise noted. The copying of posts, images and/or text without proper attribution is violation of copyright and legal action will be pursued.

The 18th Century Back in Fashion

Maison Christian Dior (f/w 2004-2005 on left and f/w 2007-2008 on right)

The extreme silhouettes, elaborate trimmings, and pouf hairstyles of the French Court dress in the 18th Century have served as a rich source of inspiration for haute couture and ready to wear fashion designers like Vivienne Westwood, Yves Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld, Azzedine Alaia, Alexander McQueen and others. In an exhibition called The 18th Century Back in Fashion at the Palace of Versailles, original garments from that period have been shown alongside the modern interpretations to demonstrate the influence of the 18th century on contemporary fashion.

Window Shopping in Berlin

Ich bin ein Berliner.... This phrase took on another level of meaning as I toured Berlin last week. It felt like I was home.  Rich in history and packed with artistic and historical treasures, this city has a vibe that is young, modern and friendly. It was like being in Paris but without the attitude.

Prada Berlin

Prada Berlin (Close up)

One thing I love to do is window shop and the windows of Berlin's couture shops did not disappoint. Like Paris, the prices are posted discretely within the window, giving you immediate feedback as to whether or not you can afford to go inside.

Bottega Veneta Berlin

YSL Berlin

In Berlin, it was the cool, architectural vibe of the clothes that grabbed me. Sleek, streamlined silhouettes, it is the look that defines much of my closet....

Jil Sander Berlin

Notice of copyright: 
All text and images on this blog are the copyright of Ingrid Mida, unless otherwise noted. The copying of posts, images and/or text without proper attribution is violation of copyright and legal action will be pursued.

Postcards of my travels

I've been burning the candle at both ends... So much so that my brain hurts and I seem to be incapable of stringing a coherent thought together. The timing was unfortunate as today I gave a talk on art and fashion at Ryerson University and felt like I stumbled my way through it. I'm craving sunshine and sleep this weekend, neither of which are on the agenda so I thought I'd travel back in time with my postcard collection. Here are some of my favourites  with links to the posts I wrote at the time.

From the Viktor and Rolf Retrospective at the Barbicon, London 2008

Viktor & Rolf Hana doll 2008
From Bedtime Story, Autumn/winter 2008-09
Photo by Peter Stigler

From the Chanel Mobile Art Container in New York Central Park, 2008

Sophie Calle for Chanel-Mobile Art 2008

From the YSL Retrospective at the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal

YSL Wedding Dress, spring-summer 1969
Photo by Diane Michals

From the exhibtion Watteau to Degas, French Drawings at the Frick Museum, New York, 2009

Femme Debout, rue de doi, vers 1742
by Francois Boucher

Happy weekend!

What's on the Calendar in August?

I can hardly believe that it is already August. Where did the summer go? Here is a list of my summer must-see exhibitions:

Yves Saint Laurent at the Petit Palais, Musee de Beaux Arts in Paris until August 29, 2010

This retrospective of Yves Saint Laurent's work covers the period from 1962-2002 and includes over 250 garments from this master of haute couture and ready-to-wear. The exhibition also includes recreations of Saint Laurent's studio, private "dreaming" room, and a wardrobe designed for Catherine Deneuve.

While I won't actually get to see this exhibition in person, I saw a similar exhibition in Montreal in 2008, which opened just before the death of this great designer. To read more about the retrospective, please click here. I also wrote extensively about Yves Saint Laurent after his death, including a post called Lessons from Saint Laurent, which can be read here. (It seems like an interesting coincidence to write this post today as Yves Saint Laurent was born on August 1, 1936.)

Person, Place and Thing at the Textile Museum of Canada on until September 6, 2010

In this exhibition of portrait-based works by artists David R. Harper, Lia Cook and Stephen Schofield, textiles and sculpture intersect in an unexpected fashion. All three artists make large scale work that is tactile which draws the viewer into a sensory encounter with "embroidered, sewn and women narratives of nature, identity and history."  This exhibition affirms my belief that embroidery and sculpture are powerful forms of expression. (I will be taking a workshop called Rogue Embroidery with David Harper later this month and hope it will inspire me to take my textile-based artwork to a new level of development.)

American Women, Fashioning a National Identity at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on until August 15, 2010.

Eighty faceless mannequins present the history of American style from 1890 to 1940 as defined into distinct archetypes including The Hieress, The Gibson Girl, The Bohemian, The Patriot and the Suffragette, The Flapper, and The Screen Siren. Animated throughout by music, lighting and video projections, the exhibition culminates in a video montage of images reflecting the modern American woman including Michelle Obama, Lady Gaga, Serena Williams, Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe.

While on the surface this may simply seem like another costume exhibit, at the core of it is an exploration of the  evolution of women's social, political and sexual emancipation as reflected in their clothing.  (And this is something that is a touchstone in my artwork). If you are unable to make it to the Met before the exhibition closes on August 15th, you can see a YouTube video of the exhibition here.

What's on My Fashion Calendar for December

I never thought I'd want to go to Ohio but December is the last chance to see Confessions and the Sense of Self: Works by Noel Palmomo-Lovinski at Kent State University Museum. In this provocative exhibition, Noel Palomo-Lovinski has used dress as a medium for expressing the tension that many women feel in their roles as wives, mothers, sisters, friends. Taking quotes from several confessional websites and applying them to clothing in a variety of decorative embellishments, texture and pattern, the artist has translated women's internal conflicts in striking visual forms. I'll be posting works from this exhibition and an artist profile of Noel Palmomo-Lovinski later this week.


Opening December 3, 2009 is the exhibition Night and Day at FIT in New York. Curated by Molly Sorkin, associate curator of Costume, this show examines how the rules that dictate appropriate dress for women have changed over the past 250 years. Featuring over 100 day and evening garments displayed in chronological order to illustrate how conventions for appropriate dress have changed, the exhibition includes the work of Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent and other designers.


December 4th and 5th will be full days at the Fashion Institute of Technology where I'll be participating in the American Style symposium. Featuring speakers such as Dr. Valerie Steele, Nina Garcia, Patrician Mears (curator of the American Beauty exhibition at FIT), Dr. Alexandra Palmer (curator of Fashion and Textiles at the Royal Ontario Museum) and other fashion scholars, this two-day symposium should be a promising source of material for future posts.


I was too busy to attend the November 19th opening of the new show at the Bata Shoe Museum From Renaissance: Chopines to Baroque Heels. This exhibition features rare and extreme forms of footwear including a pair of Venetian chopines from the 16th century that have pedestals over 50 cm (about 25 inches) in height. These towering chopines from the Fondazione Musei Civici de Venezia will never again be displayed after the September 2010 closing of the show.

Sunday, December 6th is the last day to see my work at the Stepping Stones show at the Launch Projects Gallery in Toronto. 

December is always a hectic month for me - with my birthday and preparations for the holidays all crammed into a few short weeks. But I won't complain, because I love being busy!

La Petite Robe Noire

I have had a long fascination with la petite robe noire (the little black dress). In fact, my very first fashion illustration from age 12 was of a little black dress.


"You can wear black at any hour of day or night, at any age and for any occasion. A little black dress is the most essential thing in any woman's wardrobe. I could write a book about black."
Christian Dior

"Black is both material and colour, shadow and light. It is neither happy nor sad, but bearing and elegance. Perfect and inescapable, it is as irrestable as night."
Christian Lacroix

"You should wear a black dress at all ages. When the little black dress is right, there is nothing else."
Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor

I wrote down the above quotes on the exhibition pamphlet from a 2004 display of little black dresses in Toronto. La Petite Robe Noire presented 54 little black dresses from Didier Ludot's private collection of vintage couture and included labels such as Chanel, Lucien Lelong, Balenciaga, Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, Valentino, Azzadine Alaia, John Galliano and others.


Of course, when I was in Paris in May, I had to visit Didier Ludot's vintage shops at the Palais Royale. Didier Ludot has an extensive collection of vintage couture, not all of which is black!

Photo credit: Ingrid Mida, 2009

As well, he has a storage facility packed with the most beautiful gowns, some of which he has made available to museums for display. I was quite taken with this lovely pink gown by Dior.

Photo credit: Ingrid Mida, 2009

I have many little black dresses in my closet but one of my favourites is this one from Didier Ludot's private label. It was a prototype dress (made as a sample for production) and was a little too big when I wore it for a dinner in Paris. I basted the side seems on the top and used a ribbon from a Dior gift bag for my belt! (Notice my "purse" on the stool nearby which is actually my toiletry bag!)


If you cannot make it to Paris to visit Didier Ludot's shops at the Palais Royale, you might want to pick up a copy of his Assouline book "The Little Black Dress, Vintage Treasure" (New York, 2001).

Les Fleurs en Les Jardins des Tuileries

One of my favourite things to do on a sunny day in Paris is stroll through the Jardin des Tuileries, the former gardens of the old Palais des Tuileries.

These formal gardens run parallel to the River Seine from the Louvre to the Champs-Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe. The royal gardener Andre Le Notre, royal gardener to Louis XIV, who also created the gardens of Versailles, created the original landscaping design. An extensive renovation and replanting of the Tuileries in recent years incorporated a striking mix of contemporary and classical sculpture.

Photo credits: Ingrid Mida copyright 2009

I was quite taken with this little patch of brilliant purple irises. They brought to mind Van Gogh's magnificent iris paintings as well as Yves Saint Laurent's exquisite embroidered and beaded iris evening jacket (Tribute to Van Gogh, summer 1988 collection).

Photo by Francois Gandier in Lesage by Lydia Kamitsis, published by Assouline 1999


Photo from Yves Saint Laurent Style Published by Abrams, New York, 2008

According to the book on Lesage, Les Iris de Van Gogh jacket took 600 hours of work to complete and includes 250000 paillettes in 22 colours, 200000 beads and 250 metres of ribbon!!!

Postcards from Fondation Pierre Berge-Yves Saint Laurent

Photo credit: Duane Michals for Metropolitan Museum of Art

Whenever I travel, I purchase postcards as mementos. When I wrote yesterday's post about Fondation Pierre Berge-Yves Saint Laurent, I forgot (in my jet-lagged and disoriented state) that I'd purchased a stack of cards in the boutique.

The first postcard showcases six Russian-inspired dresses from the fall-winter 1976-77 collection. After having been to the show "Le costume populaire russe", I can see the influence of the voluptuous silks, rich colours, intricate beading and elaborate head-wear of traditional Russian costumes on these YSL gowns.


Photo credit: Duane Michals for the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Yves Saint Laurent also took inspiration from other cultures including Africa. The four dresses above from the YSL spring-summer 1967 collection were African inspired.

Photo credit: Duane Michals for the Metropolitan Museum of Art

And lastly, this postcard features YSL with three of his artist inspired creations, including the Mondrian dress (1965-66), the Matisse dress (1981-82) and the Picasso dress (1979-80).

Yves Saint Laurent revisited these inspirations many times over the course of his career. If you are as passionate about his work as I am, you'll want to (re)read the following posts:

Quotes from Yves Saint Laurent (June 3, 2008)
Lessons from Yves Saint Laurent (June 7, 2008)
YSL Retrospective at the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal (June 10, 2008)
Book Review: The Beautiful Fall, Fashion, Genius and Glorious Excess in 1970s Paris

Fondation Pierre Berge-Yves Saint Laurent

Photo credit: Ingrid Mida, 2009

After writing extensively about Yves Saint Laurent after his death last June and after seeing the magnificent retrospective of his work at the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal last summer, I made it a priority to go to the Fondation Pierre Berge-Yves Saint Laurent in Paris. (To read all my posts related to YSL, please click on the YSL on the blog archive sidebar).

Currently on display is an exhibition called "Le Costume Populaire Russe" which showcases a collection of Russian costumes from Le Musee Ethnographique de la Russie. The exhibition opened on March 18 and will continue to August 30, 2009.

Yves Saint Laurent took inspiration from the colourful, heavily embroidered and beaded garments of traditional Russian costumes. In particular, the YSL collection for Fall and Winter 1976 drew on Russian influences and he was acclaimed by the fashion press for the revolutionary nature (International Herald Tribune) and luxurious extravagence (NY Times) of the collection. Sadly, only one YSL outfit inspired by Russia was included in the display.

Photos were not allowed in the exhibition and I madly sketched these three costumes in 10 minutes. They are rough sketches but I think they convey the spirit of what I saw (if only I'd brought along some coloured pencils!).

Sketch by: Ingrid Mida, 2009

Sketch by: Ingrid Mida




Sketch by: Ingrid Mida, 2009

On my way out, I popped into the boutique and picked up the exhibition catalogue (only available in French). It does not include the costumes I sketched but will help me remember the magnificent colours and intricate beading when I attempt to work up these sketches into finished drawings.

Exhibition Catalogue edited by: Nicolas Beytout
Cover Photo by: Dominique Cohas
Published by: Societe Francaise de Promotion Artistique 2009


Fondation Pierre Berge-Yves Saint Laurent
3, rue Leonce-Reynaud
75116 Paris
01 44 31 64 31
Metro: Alma-Marceau

The Muse

Photo of Jean Shrimpton by Cecil Beaton, 1964

The gala opening of the exhibition "Model as Muse" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Monday night was a convergence of the glitterati of the worlds of fashion and Hollywood. Presiding over the event was Marc Jacobs and his co-chair Justin Timberlake who welcomed Anna Wintour, Madonna, Kate Moss, Anne Hathaway, Lauren Hutton.... (to see photos and videos of the gala, check out www.style.com)

Curated by Harold Koda and Kohle Yohannan, the exhibit explores the relationship between high fashion and the evolving ideals of beauty as portrayed in the iconic models of 1947-1997. Models featured in the exhibition include: Dorian Leigh, Suzy Parker, Dovima, Jean Shrimpton, Veruschka, Twiggy, Jerry Hall, Linda Evangelista, Naomi Champbell and others.

To me, what is really interesting is not the models themselves but the concept of muse. What is a muse?

In classical mythology, muse refers to the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne who presided over the arts:
Calliope (epic poetry)
Clio (history)
Erato (lyric poetry)
Euterpe (music)
Melpomene (tragedy)
Polyhymnia (religious music)
Terpischore (dance)
Thalia (comedy)
Urania (astronomy)

(I suppose since painting and sculpture are not included here, that my artwork must fall into the category of tragedy!!!)

In more common usage, a muse is someone (sometimes referred to as a goddess!!!) who has the power to inspire an artist.

For May's issue of Vogue, Hamlish Bowles interviewed Marc Jacobs on his creative process. Jacobs said that "A collection is just that -- a collection of thoughts, ideas, and experiences, trials and errors, editing and adding. It's something that unfolds." And for each collection, at some point in that process, a muse emerges. "So whether it is Kate Moss or Winona Ryder, it's the imperfection that I find so beautiful. The flaw, their Achilles heel, is as interesting as the perfection."

In the book "The Beautiful Fall, Fashion, Genius and Glorious Excess in 1970s Paris", I learned that Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent relied heavily on their inner circle of favourite models and friends to inspire their creations. Lagerfeld was especially heartless in that he would use people until they no longer served his creative purposes. "The members of his shifting entouage were there to provide information, energy, laughter, ideas, and significantly, youth, and they were replaced when they no longer fulfilled these criteria" (page 310).

My muse is the goddess of fashion. As ephemeral as she may be, she is a wellspring of beauty and delight.

Who is your muse?

Book Review: The Beautiful Fall: Fashion, Genius, and Glorious Excess in 1970s Paris

Title: The Beautiful Fall, Fashion, Genius, and Glorious Excess in 1970s Paris
Author: Alicia Drake
Publisher: Back Bay Books, New York, 2006
Category: Non-fiction, Fashion, History
Number of Pages: 439
Price: US$14.99, Canada $17.25 (Paperback)

What it is about:
The lives and careers of Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent were intertwined from the moment they both stood on the stage to receive their awards in the 1954 International Wool Secretariat fashion design competition. Yves Saint Laurent, aged eighteen and recently arrived from Algeria, was the winner of first and third prizes in the dress category. Karl Lagerfeld, aged twenty-one from Hamburg, was winner of the coat category. From that point, Laurent and Lagerfeld were friends and rivals as their careers and lives evolved in the heady world of Parisian haute couture.

The story of the rivalry between these two iconic designers is written chronologically and the book spans the period 1954-1989. The pawn in the game between the two men was the bon vivant Jacques de Bascher. In the course of his short life, Jacques traveled between the two rival fashion camps, wrecking havoc in his wake with his affair with Yves Saint Laurent and troubled relationship with Lagerfeld.

Why I Chose this book:
It was recommended as an excellent chronicle of the 1970s fashion scene in Paris.

Favourite Passage:
"It is a grim moment for the designer when he or she finds himself or herself totally out of fashion, left behind, out of synch as time moves on. A new generation is born and the designer's vision or creative expression no longer describes or evokes the time around them. This is a creative pain unique to fashion. Of course there are trends and moods in every art form, the recent dominance of conceptual art being an obvious example. But a painting, even if it is not fashionable, can still possess its own intrinsic artistic and creative merit. Whereas one of the defining qualities of fashion is that it should describe its epoch and the desires of that moment." (page 291)

Rating:
This title of this book is a misnomer because it doesn't even hint at the scandal contained within the pages. The author has constructed shocking portraits of two of the 20th centuries greatest designers.

I was stunned by the story as it unfolded. There was so much genius, so much debauchery and so much animosity. Even though I have written extensively about Yves Saint Laurent on my fashion blog, I had little knowledge of his personal life until I read this book.

I was horrified by the degree to which Lagerfeld has manipulated and refashioned his life story to suit his purposes. The fact that Lagerfeld filed a legal writ against the author in 2006 claiming invasion of privacy, which was denied by the court, is proof of the explosive nature of the material contained in this book. No doubt the author's meticulous research and documentation (extensive footnotes and interview lists are included in the book) served her well in court.

The only weak part of the book are the title and the cover image. The rest of it is sizzling hot!

Yves Saint Laurent's Library

I've always wanted to have a home library with shelves from floor to ceiling. When I saw the photos of the late Yves Saint Laurent's beautiful library, my yearning came back. Aren't they beautiful?

Yves Saint Laurent Retrospective Opens at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco

The Yves Saint Laurent retrospective opened in at the Fine Arts Museum in San Francisco on Saturday.

Having attended the retrospective during its Canadian stop at the Montreal Fine Arts Museum this past summer, I can attest to the magnificence of the show. His designs were not only timeless, elegant but works of art unto themselves. His admiration for artists was evident in a room devoted to dresses that used artwork as their inspiration. He "borrowed" inspiration from paintings by Mondrian, Matisse, Picasso, Warhol, Van Gogh and other artists. He also took inspiration from other cultures (Russia, Spain, Japan, India, Africa), authors (Shakespeare, Apollinaire, Cocteau, Aragon, Wilde), nature, history, and design (redefining the silouette). His genius is apparent in the 130 works of wearable art on display.

And yet, Saint Laurent thought himself to be "a failed painter". ('Sayings of the Week', The Observer, 1 November 1992, p.22) How sad it is to think that this creative genius considered himself a failed artist!

Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco
November 1, 2008 - April 5, 2009
Golden Gate Park
50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive
San Francisco, CA 94118
www.famsf.org 415-750-3600

Painting as a Fashion Motif

Whether fashion can be considered to be a work of art in and of itself is an ongoing debate among art curators and fashion historians. But it cannot be disputed that Yves Saint Laurent was the first fashion designer to use a painting as a direct source of inspiration for his collections and as a fashion motif.

In 1965, YSL created the "Mondrian" dress which applied the simplified colour blocks seen in the work of the artist Piet Mondrian to a sleeveless jersey knit tunic dress. This deceptively simple design with the graphic blocks of white, yellow, red, blue and black from Mondrian's paintings was considered a masterpiece of construction.

This reference to art in YSL designs was followed up with the "Pop Art Look" in the following year and hand-beaded Van Gogh iris jackets in the 1980s.

Since that first Mondrian dress, many other designers have referenced art in their designs. This past season alone there were countless designers who did os, including John Galliano for Dior Haute Couture (Hand-painted and embroidered dress after Gustav Klimt's Adele Block-Bauer portrait), Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton (Sheer dress and slipdress after Richard Prince's Man Crazy Nurse #3), and Armani (Silk-organza petal dress with jewel brooch after Degas Dancers).

Yves Saint Laurent Retrospective at the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal

Yves Saint Laurent Evening dress inspired by Matisse 

There are countless examples of artists and fashion designers who have looked to each other for inspiration in their work. In the recent Yves Saint Laurent retrospective at the Musee des Beaux Arts in Montreal, there was an entire room of garments that referenced artwork from artists including Matisse, Van Gogh, Renoir, and Mondrian. The gown in the top photo is a beautiful example of how Yves Saint Laurent reinterpreted the artist Matisse's cut-out artworks in garment form.

The exhibit was enchanting. I marveled at the elegance and originality of his designs on the approximately one hundred outfits on display. Most designs were timeless and difficult to attribute to a particular year, especially since YSL revisited his favourite sources of inspiration again and again.

This sketch of a cocoon-like wedding outfit made of hand-knit white wool tricot with silk satin ribbons was one of the most unusual outfits on display. Imagine how avant-gard this outfit would have been in 1965. It made me wonder if Viktor and Rolf were inspired by this outfit in creating their Russian doll collection for autumn/winter 1999-2000.

Yves Saint Laurent Wedding Gown 1999

This daring flora inspired wedding gown made of silk flowers with a pink silk organza train was spectacular! From the 1999 collection, this design was the incarnation of the mythological bride, the goddess Flora or Botticelli's Venus.

I left the exhibtion in awe of Yves Saint Laurent's tremendous talent and originality. He looked to many different sources for inspiration in his work including:
- other cultures (Africa, Spain, China, Morocco, Japan, India, Russia)
- other artists (Picasso, Matisse, Mondrian, Shakespeare, Appollinaire)
- other themes (glamour, silouette, masculine/feminine, flora/fauna, geometry, history)

Looking for sources of inspiration is something that I really understand as an artist. It was interesting for me to see how he interpreted and revisited these themes in his work over the course of a career spanning 40 plus years.

This exhibition continues at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts until September 28, 2008 and then will travel to the Fine Art Museum of San Francisco (November 1, 2008 to March 1, 2009).

Yves Saint Laurent Retrospective (until September 28, 2008)
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
1380 Sherbrooke Ouest, Monteal
514-285-2000, 1-800-899-MUSE
www.mbam.qc.ca

San Francisco Museum of Fine Art, November 1, 2008 to March 1, 2009

Lessons from Yves Saint Laurent

This is the last of my tributes to the legendary Yves Saint Laurent. In all the research I did this week, I am left with a tremendous sense of respect for his revolutionary fashion ideas and business success. There are many lessons to be learned from the career of this talented designer.

1. A degree is not required.
YSL only attended the prestigious Chambre Syndicale school of haute couture for three months before quitting. He emerged as a promising young designer by winning the first prize for a cocktail dress design in a contest sponsored by the International Wool Secretariat. He was only 17 years old when he was hired by Christian Dior.

2. Be innovative.
YSL was one of the first to use couture as a laboratory. Although many of his design innovations endure today, he was not without his share of flops. As I mentioned yesterday, his introduction of street fashion in 1962 and the leather jacket for women, was considered a failure and resulted in his dismissal from the house of Dior. As well, he included knickerbockers in his collections more than once.

During an interview on France-Info radio, his business partner Pierre Berge said "Saint Laurent was a true creator, going beyond the aesthetic to make a social statement. In this sense, he was a libertarian, an anarchist and he threw bombs at the legs of society. That's how he transformed society and that's how he transformed women."

3. Failure can be the path to something bigger and better than you ever imagined.
After YSL was dismissed from Dior and conscripted into military service, he was hospitalized for depression and subjected to such horrors as electroshock therapy. Enduring the public humiliation of being fired and the shame of being in a mental hospital did not mean the end of Saint Laurent's career. Without this break from the house of Dior, it is conceivable that he might never have enjoyed the success that he did.

4. Know your strengths and find a partner whose strengths compliments your weaknesses.
Yves Saint Laurent was a true artiste - creative, sensitive, and fragile. Undoubtedly, it was his partner Pierre Berge who was the mastermind behind the business success of the house. In 1966, the house of YSL opened the first ready-to-wear Rive Gauche boutique by a couture designer on the Paris Left Bank. This move was instrumental in the development of the idealogical shift that fashion was no longer just for the rich.

These lessons are applicable not only to the big business of fashion but to the business of life. In writing this post, I have myself learned about taking risks and living your dream. Merci Monsieur Saint Laurent!

Yves Saint Laurent and The Leather Jacket

The influence of the late Yves Saint Laurent on what women wear today is mind boggling. In all the tributes to the designer this week, few people mention his introduction of the leather jacket for women in 1960. Although my leather jacket is not YSL, it is one of my favourite items and I wear it almost every day in spring and fall. It is incredibly versatile and goes with everything from jeans to a pencil skirt.

In what turned out to be his last collection for Dior in 1960, Saint Laurent referenced Paris street wear and introduced the first leather jackets for couture with this crocodile version trimmed in mink shown in the photo above. This marriage of couture with street fashion represented a fundamental shift in the fashion world at the time.

But at the time, the drastic departure from the ladylike look at Dior was heavily criticized and Sain Laurent was effectively fired and replaced with Marc Bohan. The stay on Saint Laurent's mandatory military service was canceled and he was forced into military service in September of 1960. After three weeks of service, he entered a military hospital for nervous depression where he stayed for six weeks of treatment. He was given a medical discharge by the end of the year. The experience haunted him for the rest of his life and he suffered recurring bouts of depression.

In retrospect, this break from Dior turned out to be a turning point in Saint Laurent's life (an inspiration for anyone who has suffered a setback). Breaking from Dior turned out to be a silver lining in a drak cloud since it allowed him to open a fashion house under his own name and to freely create his innovative fashions without the shadow of a founder over him.

Yves Saint Laurent used his haute couture label as a labratory for ideas, leaving a legacy of fashion innovation that not only allowed women to embrace their beauty and power but also to use fashion as a form of self-expression.

A Working Wardrobe Staple: The Pantsuit

One of the most significant fashion legacies of the late Yves Saint Laurent was his introduction of the pantsuit for women. "A woman in a pant suit is not masculine at all - a severe and implacable cut only emphasizes her femininity, her seductiveness all the more."

The YSL pantsuit first appeared in the form of a "smoking tuxedo" in the summer haute couture collection of 1966. This alternative to the evening gown became a YSL "signature look and reappeared in each of his subsequent collections.

In January 1968, YSL introduced the safari look pantsuit. He said "I suddenly became aware of the female form. I started to have a dialogue with women and to understand what a modern woman was." His pantsuits revolutionized what was considered acceptable street wear for chic women after the 1968 Paris student uprisings.

And of course, I cannot write about the YSL pantsuits without mentioning the infamous story of socialite Nan Kemper who was turned away from a fashionable Manhattan restaurant because she was wearing a YSL tunic with pants. Instead of leaving, she simply removed the pants and wore the tunic as a very short dress. Talk about elegance under pressure!!

Yves Saint Laurent gave working woman a lasting gift in designing clothes that allowed us to be both powerful and beautiful. Merci Monsieur!!