Yves Saint Laurent Love

So I’ve made a round at the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts the other day. The (un)timely death of the designer must have sparked a huge flock of fashion followers around the world to come to this exhibit, which will be in Montreal until September and then move on to San Francisco.

As I arrived with my friend on a Wednesday, tickets were half priced at $7.50, and the museum was crowded with women (with a few men). The huge staircase leading up to the exhibition already had a dozen mannequins with several YSL-esque outfits – an hommage to Yves from local designers Renata Morales to Helmer.

With a red carpet entrance to the second floor we’re greeted with a mirror-like wall with screens playing different biographical videos of the french designer. There’s a thick guestbook you could flip through to see who has signed, but being not much of a handwriting expert, Anna Wintour could have signed and I wouldn’t have known.

Entering the first room, the crowd was astounded to find a knitted, ivory, inuit/sarcophagus-like wedding dress. An excellent choice to simply wow the public, I wish I could’ve taken a picture of it, clearly couture like no other. The exhibition rooms were separated by styles starting with humble beginnings ending with an array of colorful dresses until his retirement.

What I have to say about this exhibit is that it is indeed what I had hope it to be, a large collection of clothes, shoes, hats and apparels on several dozens of mannequins.

From the first sketches to the end product, to redefining the dress shape, to international influence from Russia to India, to era-defining shift dresses and political dove dresses, Yves Saint Laurent had done it all. Embroidered gowns, tuxedos for women, simple navy style blazers to an exotic gunmetal feathered cape (which was my favorite), there were sound clips, video clips, rotating mannequins and blasts of colours, the designer had created quite an incredible range of styles.

Women crowded each sector, talking how they loved the shape, the color, the textures. One young girl said she was unimpressed with the sketches, hoping them to be more defined and precise, her friend explained to her that these were the very first sketches, the kind you put down as an idea and refined later. The sense of wonder came over her as she understood that Yves Saint Laurent sometimes didn’t stray very far from the first sketch to the end product, which is to say, quite amazing.

Though we’d seen the amazing range Yves Saint Laurent had, the exhibit is only at most 30 mins long depending how long you like to fawn over his clothing and reading the writings on the walls. My favorites were his African inspired beadwork, and his more glamorous gowns.

The souvenir shop offered little in merchandise aside from a big pink book documenting Yves Saint Laurent’s work. But at $50 a pop, I wasn’t quite sure it was worth the investment. You won’t expect to find real YSL merchandise unless you’re ready to fork over a few hundred, if not thousand, dollars. But overall it’s worth the trip and an enjoyable time to get up close and personal with designs that have defied and defined the times. A great exhibit indeed.

Image credit: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts