Yves Saint Laurent and Art

In January 1962, Yves Saint Laurent launched his very first collection. To celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of his couture house, the Musée Yves Saint Laurent, Paris, is looking back at the couturier’s work and juxtaposing his creations with art works from the collections of five major Paris institutions: the Musée d’Orsay, the Louvre, the Centre Pompidou, the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, and the Musée Picasso, as well as presenting a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the secrets of couture at the Musée Yves Saint Laurent. From the ancient world to pop art, Yves Saint Laurent regularly took inspiration from art history as he combined colors, carved out new forms, and rethought the structure of garments in order to create his own masterpieces. Here, androgynous silhouettes and Proustian gowns stand alongside Édouard Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe, feather patterns respond to Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings, flowing silhouettes merge with a mural by Raoul Du