Yves Saint Laurent exhibit

I went to the de Young museum last weekend to view the Yves Saint Laurent retrospective exhibit. I was blown away by the variety of the Saint Laurent couture collection and the specificity of the chosen pieces as well as the compiled information about each item. Saint Laurent designed many garments in tribute to different artists (Matisse, Van Gogh, etc). In 1966, Saint Laurent designed his first "le smoking" which is the first woman's tuxedo. Since then, the woman's tuxedo has become a staple in fashion, always resurfacing in style. One of his pieces that really stuck with me was an encrusted gold suit from Fall 1981. It was entirely covered in sequins, rhinestones, and made of shiny gold fabric and was the essence of the 80's. Saint Laurent, unlike other designers, did not go to far off lands to get "inspired" for his runway collections. Instead, he took the armchair anthropologist approach and read about different countries to get a sense for the culture and designed lines off of what he found intriguing through images and literature. When I saw some of the Russian and African themed outfits, I assumed he went to those countries. But the description on the wall told me otherwise. Most designers that were approved by the Ministry of Industry in France (what is required of you in order to be a couturier house) made only 35 looks a season, and Saint Laurent made over 100 looks a year. Quotes that really stuck with me were "I craft happiness to free the body from its constraints" and "Is elegance forgetting what one is wearing?" Something I thought I should note, while Saint Laurent died this year and is now showing his retrospective, he was also the very first designer to have a retrospective while living, in 1983. How exciting! He had amassed that much work and was so well known that he didn't even have to be deceased to get a retrospective? How amazing.