Yves Saint Laurent Show of Dresses and Sketches Opens in Orange County

Blind and paralyzed, Pierre sits in his well-appointed Paris apartment attended by Séverine, the bored housewife at the heart of Luis Buñuel’s 1967 classic film Belle du Jour. It is arguably Catherine Deneuve’s best movie and helped establish the career of the French star, who went on to become the country’s leading lady for decades. In the scene, Deneuve wears a little black dress, stylish with its rounded white collar and cuffs. It was designed by Yves Saint Laurent, his iteration of Coco Chanel’s game-changing design that became a staple of women’s fashion. You can now see the dress firsthand in California at Yves Saint Laurent: Line and Expression, on view at Orange County Museum of Art in Costa Mesa through Oct. 27. 

“They became friends immediately,” notes Gaël Mamine, co-curator of the show that began at Marrakech’s Musée Yves Saint Laurent. “In her movies, he was the one who did all the couture for her. He dressed her in her private life but also for the screen.”

A scintillating sampling from the vast collection of works by the great French couturier, the new exhibit features photographs, jewelry and haute couture garments spanning Saint Laurent’s career from 1963 to 2002. Come for the clothing — featuring 46 looks — and stay for the drawings. His highly evocative line illustrations chart the genesis of his designs. Drawn with pencil on paper, they capture the essence of his fabric choices — sheer chiffon, shimmering silk, rough tweed and voluptuous velvet.

“It’s the first time in a show we have so many sketches from Yves Saint Laurent from the beginning, the ’60s to 2002,” says exhibition designer Claudia Huidobro. “I wanted to focus on this subject because the idea of the exhibition is to show the process of the sketches as the basis of the whole work.”

Even as a young man, Saint Laurent’s drawings were nonpareil, so good that they landed him a spot working at Christian Dior in 1955 when the budding designer was only 19 years old. Dior instantly saw potential in the young man, hired him and later named him as his successor, a role he assumed upon Dior’s death two years later. His spring show of 1958 was a sensation, introducing the trapeze dress to the world. But his follow-up autumn show, in which he lowered hemlines, sparked doubts about his staying power. 

“It was a challenge for him to find his way to his own style,” offers Huidobro. “He worked with all the things he learned with Dior, and I think he was always trying to find his own language for the garments.” 

After he was dropped by Dior, a period of forced military conscription resulted in a stay in a mental facility. Upon his release he was seemingly all washed up but was encouraged by his industrialist partner, Pierre Bergé, to start his own studio. YSL was born in 1962, ushering in a new generation of French fashion. 

“When he opens his house, from ‘62 to ’65, it was really in the classical way he used to work with Dior but with a new twist, which was really, really of the time,” notes Huidobro. “But when he started to work with the jersey dress and when he started to do references to art, Mondrian, pop art and things like that, I think he started to find some distance from Dior.”

Incorporating designs that referenced the paintings of Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Piet Mondrian (quadrilateral shapes and primary colors), Saint Laurent was of the moment. But his gaze wasn’t fixed on Western art alone, incorporating elements of Asian and African culture as well. 

“He was from Algiers, and his collection in the late ’60s has African fabric and prints, and also all the hairdressing was like African sculpture,” says Mamine of Saint Laurent’s 1967 collection, noting he would disappear to Morocco each winter where he dreamed up his creations with pen and paper. “He used to collect African art, and then Morocco was really an inspiration to him. So, he was really open worldwide to art and pop culture.” 

A major force in fashion throughout his career, Saint Laurent closed YSL in 2002 and passed away six years later of brain cancer. Attending his funeral were Deneuve, former First Lady Bernadette Chirac, former Empress of Iran Farah Pahlavi, French President Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni. A few days prior, Saint Laurent and Bergé had been joined in a same-sex civil union. Bergé spoke at the service, saying, “I know that I will never forget what I owe you and that one day I will join you under the Moroccan palms.”

The Orange County Museum of Art is located at 3333 Avenue of the Arts in Costa Mesa, California.