Paris, France — Paris Fashion Week, which has drawn crowds of industry press and celebrities to the French capital, has just drawn to a close, but one of the best places in Paris to see great fashions — that are in and of themselves works of art — is the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris. The museum is housed in the private mansion on the Avenue Marceau where the designer, one of the greatest couturiers of the 20th century, created his collections for over 30 years from 1974 until 2002. In addition to the permanent collections of couture and ready-to-wear pieces as well as the original sketches, visitors can have a look into Yves Saint Laurent’s studio and the museum hosts temporary exhibitions juxtaposing Mr. Saint Laurent’s designs with works from a contemporary artist. 

The current show Yves Saint Laurent – Shapes and Forms, Decors and Works by Claudia Wieser, brings together the couturier’s creations with decors and works by the German artist. The show presents some forty models by Yves Saint Laurent — both haute couture and ready-to wear garments — alongside accessories and sketches which all dialogue with the works of Claudia Wieser. It offers an opportunity to see how Yves Saint Laurent literally constructed the outfits he designed. His creations, already beginning in the 1960s, were stream-lined, beautifully cut and emboldened with rich colors. Shape often prevailed over color, especially in his black and white and black and blue garments. In fact one space in the show is devoted entirely to his black and white creations which underscore the geometry and architectural features in his works.

Left: Two-tone evening dress in elegant black and white worn by model Nicole Dorier, couture collection Autumn-Winter 1981. ©Yves Saint Laurent ©All rights reserved. Handout via The Gourmet Gazette Right: White evening dress trimmed with a black ribbon effect worn by model Shiraz Tal, couture collection Fall-Winter 1998. ©Yves Saint Laurent ©Guy Marineau. Handout via The Gourmet Gazette

Meanwhile, Claudia Wieser,  influenced by the intuitive and spiritual work of Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee, explores modernist-inspired geometric constructions on display in the exhibition. The show includes several of her own works which have never been exhibited before. The exhibition was curated by the museum’s director Elsa Janssen and its head curator Serena Bucalo-Mussely.

The museum’s rich permanent collection includes more than 100,000 graphic artworks–including 55,000 fashion sketches by the couturier–130,000 photographs, 20,000 accessories and textile samples, as well as a press and audiovisual archive housing more than 50,000 documents. This unparalleled collection is the result of pioneering, systematic archival procedures put in place at the couture house by Pierre Bergé and Yves Saint Laurent, beginning in 1974. The Musée Yves Saint Laurent is presided over by Madison Cox. The temporary exhibition is running until January 14th, 2024. ©Trish Valicenti for The Gourmet Gazette. https://museeyslparis.com/en/

Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris, 5, avenue Marceau, 75116 Paris, France,+33 (0)1 44 31 64 00