Yves Saint Laurent: Form and Fashion

Legendary couturier Yves Saint Laurent continually reinvented the silhouette throughout his career, from his modernist “Trapeze” dress for Christian Dior in 1958 to his pop art illusion prints.

A fashion revolutionary, Yves Saint Laurent and his creations were resolutely modern. His ongoing exploration of shape and form incessantly pushed the boundaries of his creativity and led to his most groundbreaking and iconic designs. His works were influenced by the artistic trends of the time—from simple and geometric abstraction to constructivism and concrete art—whose many movements mirror the multifaceted talent of the designer. A bold, exacting gesture underpinned his art: his minimalist dresses were often monochromatic compositions seemingly sprung from a single line. A colorist, he imagined pure yet exuberant abstract designs by combining flat surfaces in vibrant hues. Transposing pictorial material onto textiles, he thus balanced color, form, surface, and line. An illusionist, he would juxtapose black and white to suggest movement in the garment through optical illusion. By using flat, simple lines, shape prevailed over color.

This volume accompanies an exhibition, Yves Saint Laurent: Shapes and Forms, at the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris from June 9, 2023, to January 14, 2024, which features key pieces from the Yves Saint Laurent archives in dialogue with the set design and works by ceramic artist Claudia Wieser.Elsa Janssen is director and Serena Bucalo-Mussely is head of collections at the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris. Cécile Bargues is an art historian and curator. Julien Fronsacq is an art critic and chief curator and deputy director at MAMCO.