Paris, at the Yves Saint Laurent Museum an exhibition on the theme of flowers in the designer's creations

From September 20, 2024 to May 4, 2025, the Yves Saint Laurent Museum in Paris will host the exhibition Les Fleurs d’Yves Saint Laurent. This exhibition, curated by Olivier Saillard and Gaël Mamine, is the second part of a project begun at the Yves Saint Laurent Museum in Marrakech, where it was presented from March 2, 2024 to January 5, 2025. This is the first time the two museums have collaborated on a joint program dedicated to a central theme in the work of the celebrated designer.

Yves Saint Laurent, along with his partner Pierre Bergé, lived surrounded by flowers and gardens, both in their private homes and in his fashion house. This passion for nature provided the designer with an endless source of inspiration. His admiration for flora is reflected not only in his creations, but also in his literary tastes, which he shared with many artists and writers, including Marcel Proust, one of his favorite authors. As he declared in an interview with L’Egoïste in 1987, Yves Saint Laurent found in Proust ’s world a reflection of his own interests, both in his interiors and his clothes. If Proust described women as flowers, Yves Saint Laurent dressed them as such to pay homage to them.

The exhibition features some 30 silhouettes and textile designs that highlight the symbiosis between Yves Saint Laurent’s work, nature and literature. Each section of the exhibition is conceived as a chapter in a book, where quotes from Proust are placed in dialogue with the designer’s flowery silhouettes. Accessories and designs are displayed on lecterns, as in a garden that tells the story of the designer’s personality and tastes: from the lily of the valley, Christian Dior’s favorite flower, to the lily anagram of his initials, to the roses of love, Moroccan bougainvillea and the symbolic ear of wheat.

During the exhibition, visitors will be able to admire iconic pieces and the technical virtuosity Yves Saint Laurent employed to make his floral creations. These include the first embroideries applied to a dress from the spring-summer 1962 collection, prints from the spring-summer 2001 collection inspired by Pierre Bonnard’s paintings, and the majestic silk gazar flowers of the wedding dress worn by Laetitia Casta in the summer of 1999, an unforgettable image of the designer.

The dialogue between art and fashion continues with American guest artist Sam Falls, whose works will be an integral part of the exhibition. Falls, traveling the world, collects plants and captures the memory of these floral landscapes by printing pigments directly onto canvas. The patterns and colors of this reinterpreted nature harmonize perfectly with those found in Yves Saint Laurent’s haute couture garments. In the works of both artists, flowers become timeless symbols, capable of transcending the ages and remaining eternal.

© Yves Saint Laurent Museum Paris

Paris, at the Yves Saint Laurent Museum an exhibition on the theme of flowers in the designer's creations

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