Exhibition: Asian fantasies of Yves Saint Laurent

The museum devoted to the couturier highlights the influence of the arts of Japan, India and China on his creations.

On July 27, 1977, when he presented, in front of eight hundred guests, at the InterContinental Hotel in Paris, his fall-winter haute couture collection known as "Chinese", Yves Saint Laurent never set foot in China. However, the 138 models presented in a debauch of velvet and jaspered black and gold silk, red and blue muslin and satin, seem straight from the Middle Kingdom. But on closer inspection, each piece is a very personal interpretation of the Chinese wardrobe. Cup, closure, collar, build: nothing really conforms to traditional costumes but undeniably emanates a Chinese spirit.

To create his dresses, his jackets and his coats, Yves Saint Laurent (1936-2008) had drawn from the books which lined the library of his workshop, in his fashion house of the avenue Marceau, in the 16 th district of Paris , which became the Yves Saint-Laurent Museum in 2017. He was inspired by the films he loved - Shanghaï Express (1932), The Lady of Shanghai (1947) - visits he made to the Guimet Museum located not far from his fashion house, oriental works which abounded the apartments-museums he shared with his companion and partner Pierre Bergé (died in 2017). "Yves Saint Laurent had a fantasy vision of Asia, which turned out to be extremely creative"says Aurélie Samuel, curator of "L'Asie rêvée de Yves Saint Laurent", the first thematic exhibition presented by the museum since its opening.

A "motionless traveler"
Curator of the heritage of this establishment opened in the mansion where the designer worked from 1974 to 2002, Aurélie Samuel, who watches over some 7,000 prototypes carefully stored on the reserves, wanted to show the influence of the traditional cloakroom and the Asian culture on the work of the stylist. She imagined to put in front of the emblematic outfits of the collections ...