YSL makes a grand entrance into the de Young

As a member of the  “Golden Age of Haute Couture” club, Yves Saint Laurent flies high in the sartorial stratosphere with fellow fashion elite like Dior, Balenciaga Madame Gres. Starting on Nov. 1 (that’s tomorrow), the de Young museum will open their doors to a  40 year retrospective of the late and great YSL – which is the museum's best fashion exhibit to date.
 

Peek-a-boo! I see you you YSL!

With curators Jill D’Alessandro, Florence Müller and Diane Charbonneau holding the reigns of the exhibit and “The Dean of YSL” Pierre Bergé on hand at the Oct. 30 press preview (side note: he was sporting a Barack Obama button) to usher in the new retrospective, the exhibit is definitely a site that art lovers and fashionistas will enjoy in perfect harmony.

“I don’t know if fashion is an art,” said Bergé at the press preview, “but to create fashion, you must be an artist.”

Amen brother.
 

Yes, I took all the photos. Can't you tell?

40 years brings about a lot of couture. Walking into the entryway of the newly built YSL nook, one can be overwhelmed and go into inspiration shock when looking down the hallway at the YSL feast that stands before them. Nearly 130 pieces are divided into four themes: Masterful pencil strokes (his masterful sketches), The YSL Revolution (men’s tailoring for women), The Palette (color) and Lyrical sources (inspiration drawn from the art world).

The exhibit is like swimming through the brain of YSL.

The frenzy of YSL couture lining the walls of the de Young engulfs you. It doesn’t make you look anywhere else but at the garment beautifully dressed and gorgeously lit on the faceless mannequins.

His clear creative mind was ultimately a factory of visionary fashion genius. From ethnic-inspired garments to glamorous gowns fit for a queen, his point of view is all over the place, but it still makes perfect sense.

Dresses with bubbly silhouettes proved he was ahead of his time, while his African-esque pointy bra evening dress is testimony that he was thinking of protruding mammarys long before Gaultier strapped a cone bra on Madonna.

Pieces of art are transformed into whimsical pieces of memorable fashion with garments that pay tribute Henri Matisse, Vincent van Gogh, Tom Wesselmann, Pablo Picasso and of course, the color block joy of Piet Mondrian.

The Mondrian dress...

From sketch to garment...

But my personal favorite was the masculine tailoring – a trailblazing feat that gave YSL a superior rank on the hierarchy of trailblazing fashion design.  With an array of women’s suits and sexy tuxedo jackets, his men-for-women tailoring style made it okay for the modern woman to wear pants and gave Katherine Hepburn reason to gush.

The hotness of masculine tailoring for women...

...and I just wanted to include this piece because I love it's coccoon meets bridal meets tampon look: