Image taken from ysl official website
1961
THE HOUSE OF SAINT LAURENT IS FOUNDED BY YVES SAINT LAURENT AND PIERRE BERGÉ AT 30 BIS RUE SPONTINI, PARIS. ITS ICONIC LOGO, ENTWINING THE INITIALS ‘YSL’, IS DESIGNED BY THE FRENCH GRAPHIC ARTIST ADOLPHE JEAN-MARIE MOURON, KNOWN AS CASSANDRE. ITS ORIGINAL FORM IS STILL USED AS PART OF THE HOUSE ICONOGRAPHY TODAY.
Excerpt taken from ysl official website
Archival Footage – YSL – SPRING/SUMMER 2023 FASHION SHOW IN MARRAKECH
Founded in 1962 with the debut of an acclaimed first collection featuring a little black dress, the House of Saint Laurent quickly revolutionized fashion. In 1966, Yves Saint Laurent launched Rive Gauche, the first designer ready-to-wear line treated with haute couture creativity, cementing the Left Bank as the brand’s cultural epicenter. Over the following decades, Saint Laurent broke new ground, collaborating with cinema in Belle de Jour (1967), introducing men’s ready-to-wear (1968), and redefining silhouettes with the scandalous yet visionary 1940s-inspired Liberation collection (1971). The House moved to 5 Avenue Marceau in 1974, staged its first raised-catwalk show with the opulent Ballets Russes collection in 1976, and in 1977 united scent and couture with the launch of Opium. In 1983, Saint Laurent became the first living designer honored with a retrospective at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. As his legacy expanded, he appointed Alber Elbaz and Hedi Slimane to lead the Rive Gauche lines in 1997, paving the way for the brand’s continuity. Following Gucci Group’s 1999 acquisition, Tom Ford, Stefano Pilati, and later Hedi Slimane each brought modern reinterpretations, Slimane notably rebranding the house as Saint Laurent in 2012. Under Anthony Vaccarello, appointed in 2016, the house reaffirmed its Left Bank heritage and global reach, culminating in the 2022 men’s show in Marrakech, a poetic return to one of Yves Saint Laurent’s lifelong muses and a landmark moment in fashion history.
At Yves Saint Laurent, heritage is not a lost memory; it is a living force.
From the day Yves Saint Laurent opened his atelier on Avenue Marceau, the maison has built its identity on heritage, preserving legacy while provoking modernity.
Every collection, every campaign, every space under the Saint Laurent name has carried the same conviction: that fashion is not only an art form, but a cultural mirror, one that reflects the spirit of its time while remaining timeless.
It is this philosophy that defines this project, YSL: The Exhibition, a proof of concept that honors the house’s devotion to heritage while reimagining it for today's modern world.
Yves Saint Laurent has held exhibitions before, from the Musée Yves Saint Laurent in Paris to other global retrospectives, but never one like this. Where past exhibitions showcased merely archives, this one expands across time. It presents YSL’s history not as static memory, but as an ongoing dialogue between past and present, archive and innovation, art and society.
Structured by era, each gallery room revisits a pivotal chapter in the maison’s evolution: Rive Gauche, Le Smoking, Marrakech, and others; however, each is paired with a corresponding modern counterpart, new pieces from a present-day collection inspired by that very era. The archival and the contemporary pieces are exhibited side by side, revealing how the codes of Saint Laurent (freedom, androgyny, and sensual precision) remain as powerful and relevant as ever.
To make this even more impactful, every era is further reinterpreted through short films created specifically for their respective gallery rooms. Each short film explores the political, economic, and social themes that defined that particular time, as well as how those same issues resonate in today’s world.
For instance, the Le Smoking Gallery pairs the original tuxedo with a new piece in its modern reinvention, accompanied by a short film on gender roles then versus now; the Rive Gauche Gallery showcases the 1960s pieces alongside modern ones in addition to showing a film that juxtaposes the birth of ready-to-wear with today’s conversations on access, identity, and creative independence.
The result is a full-circle exhibition– an artistic, intellectual, and emotional experience that bridges eras, mediums, and ideas.
It is not simply an homage to Yves Saint Laurent’s past, but a reaffirmation of the house’s enduring philosophy: To be truly modern is to understand one’s heritage, and to keep reinventing it for the world to come.
Yves Saint Laurent: The Exhibition is a journey through the evolution of modern elegance, an immersive dialogue between heritage and the present day.
Divided into four chapters: Genesis, Revolution, Legacy, and Rebirth, the exhibition invites guests to move chronologically through twelve rooms, each a meticulously designed world that pairs archival creations with new pieces from a contemporary collection inspired by that very era.
Every space also features a short film reflecting the social, political, and artistic pulse of its time, drawing connections between the world Yves Saint Laurent shaped and the one we inhabit today.
The result is a living museum: a meditation on how beauty, freedom, and form transcend decades.
| GENESIS (1962–1967) — The Birth of a Vision
Visitors begin with the founding of the house: the moment simplicity became rebellion
1. The Birth of a House: The first collection and atelier; modern elegance is born.
2. Rive Gauche Revolution: The democratization of couture; fashion meets the street.
3. Cinema & The Feminine Gaze: YSL’s heroines redefine femininity through film and intellect.
Exhibit Gallery Model: Gallery 1 – The Birth of a House
In 1962, a 26-year-old Yves Saint Laurent opened the doors of his own couture house, defining a new era of elegance built on clarity, restraint, and conviction.
This gallery recreates the intimacy of his first atelier: ivory walls, black flooring, archival sketches, and crisp white light illuminating the iconic petite robe noire. Every detail of the design evokes the discipline and purity that marked his debut: a quiet rebellion expressed through precision. As one walks through the hallway, opposite this stands the contemporary reinterpretation, a new black ensemble that mirrors the simplicity and strength of Yves’s first collection. A short accompanying film traces the cultural landscape of the early 1960s, juxtaposing it with today’s creative climate, inviting reflection on how Saint Laurent’s language of minimalism continues to define what modern elegance means now.
Exhibit Gallery Model: Gallery 2 – Rive Gauche
Exhibit Gallery Model: Gallery 2.5 – Rive Gauche
When Yves Saint Laurent opened his Rive Gauche boutique in 1966, he transformed fashion from an elite pursuit into a more accessible commodity, a cultural movement, and a new way of living, thinking, and dressing.
This gallery embodies that radical energy: concrete walls, brushed steel fixtures, and red lacquer accents recreate the industrial pulse of Left Bank Paris, while a glowing neon “RIVE GAUCHE” sign washes the room in café light. Mirrors blur the line between audience and model, reminding guests that they, too, are part of the revolution. Archival ready-to-wear pieces stand beside contemporary silhouettes inspired by the same rebellious codes, tailoring made for movement, intellect, and youth. At the room’s center, a small Rive Gauche Café Bar serves cocktails and espresso, immersing guests in the sensual, bohemian rhythm of 1960s Paris before they continue their journey throughout the gallery. This design choice transforms the space from a gallery into an experience, a living tribute to the moment when Saint Laurent made fashion accessible, alive, and eternal.
Exhibit Gallery Model: Gallery 3 – Cinema & The Feminine Gaze
In the late 1960s, Yves Saint Laurent began shaping not only how women dressed, but how they were seen. This gallery explores his deep connection to cinema and the redefinition of femininity through the lens of film.
This third gallery exhibit, an intimate theatre and screening room, is designed with velvet-lined walls, golden spotlights, and flickering projections from Belle de Jour that cast reflections across Catherine Deneuve’s costumes and archival press stills. The atmosphere is dark and seductive, echoing the voyeurism and mystery that defined Saint Laurent’s cinematic muses: women who embodied intellect, restraint, and allure. The gallery’s design blurs performance and reality: rows of vintage cinema seats become display plinths, while looping dialogue and film reels fill the air like whispers of a scene long past. Opposite the archives, new pieces from the present collection reinterpret Saint Laurent’s cinematic codes, sculptural tailoring, satin contrasts, and soft armor for a modern heroine. A series of short films complements the space, examining the feminine gaze then and now, tracing how Yves’s vision of womanhood remains as subversive and timeless on screen today as it was in 1967.
| REVOLUTION (1966–1980s) — The Provocation of Power
YSL challenges norms and reshapes the language of identity
4. Le Smoking: Androgyny and empowerment: the tuxedo as cultural symbol.
5. The Liberation Collection: Scandal and defiance turn criticism into evolution.
6. The Ballets Russes: Fashion becomes performance, art, and dream.
7. Opium & The Orient: Seduction, controversy, and the mythology of desire.
Exhibit Gallery Model: Gallery 4 – Le Smoking
Few garments have altered the language of fashion like Le Smoking, Yves Saint Laurent’s tuxedo for women. Introduced in 1966, it redefined sensuality and power, challenging the conventions of gender and elegance.
This gallery is designed as a cathedral of androgyny: mirrored black marble floors reflect spotlit mannequins dressed in sleek tuxedos, their silhouettes multiplying endlessly in the dark. The space is silent except for the echo of heels on stone, evoking both confidence and confrontation. On the walls, Helmut Newton’s iconic black-and-white photographs and interviews with muses like Betty Catroux and Bianca Jagger surround the viewer, embodying the tension between masculinity and allure. Opposite these archival icons, contemporary Saint Laurent pieces reinterpret the tuxedo through modern proportions, latex, and sharp tailoring, reaffirming Le Smoking as a living symbol of freedom. A short accompanying film contrasts gender expression of the 1970s with today’s fluid gender identities, transforming this room into a meditation on how one garment, conceived in rebellion, continues to define what it means to own one’s power.
Exhibit Gallery Model: Gallery 5 – Liberation Collection
When Yves Saint Laurent unveiled his 1971 Liberation Collection, the fashion world was scandalized. Inspired by the silhouettes of 1940s wartime Paris: padded shoulders, knee-length skirts, platform shoes, critics called it vulgar, even disrespectful. Yet in hindsight, it was revolutionary: an act of defiance against nostalgia and conformity.
This gallery captures that tension between elegance and provocation. The room glows in warm amber light, with patterned wallpaper echoing a Paris apartment under occupation: mirrors edged with cigarette burns, mannequins posed mid-motion as if caught in an argument with time. Archival garments and press clippings line the space, revealing how Saint Laurent transformed scandal into innovation. Across from them, the modern reinterpretation reimagines the 1971 codes through a contemporary lens, deconstructed tailoring, smoky silks, and unapologetic sensuality. The accompanying short film parallels the cultural unrest of the early ’70s with today’s cycles of criticism and reinvention, inviting reflection on how fashion, and courage, evolve when beauty dares to offend.
Exhibit Gallery Model: Gallery 6 – The Ballets Russes
In 1976, Yves Saint Laurent staged one of the most opulent moments in fashion history: The Ballets Russes collection, a riot of color, texture, and theatrical imagination. This gallery transforms that exuberance into an immersive world of art and movement.
Draped velvet walls in ruby, amethyst, and sapphire surround raised catwalks lined with couture pieces shimmering under golden light. Original sketches, embroidered jackets, and costume jewelry pay homage to Diaghilev’s spirit and Saint Laurent’s belief that fashion could transcend function to become pure performance. Soft orchestral music and the faint echo of applause fill the air, blurring the boundary between stage and salon. Opposite the archival display, the modern reinterpretation channels the same baroque grandeur through restrained luxury, sculptural silhouettes and jewel-toned minimalism that honor excess with control. A short accompanying film juxtaposes the artistic liberation of the 1970s with today’s creative revolutions, celebrating fashion’s eternal dance between fantasy and discipline, dream and design.
Exhibit Gallery Model: Gallery 7 – The Opium & Orient
Provocative, intoxicating, and unapologetically sensual, Opium marked one of Yves Saint Laurent’s most daring cultural statements. Launched in 1977, the fragrance and its accompanying fashion campaigns captured both allure and controversy, igniting debate over desire, exoticism, and power.
This gallery immerses guests in the world of crimson light and incense haze, where shadow and scent merge into seduction. Oversized perfume bottles rise as sculptural installations beside archival garments inspired by Asian art and Saint Laurent’s fascination with the East. Campaign photographs, censored headlines, and press responses line the walls, inviting reflection on the duality of beauty and transgression. The design of the room deliberately provokes: carved screens diffuse red light, the air is thick with the perfume’s spice, and mirrors shimmer like smoke. Across from the archives, the modern reinterpretation explores cross-cultural inspiration in today’s global context, emphasizing dialogue over appropriation. The accompanying short film revisits the meaning of allure, examining how seduction, identity, and artistic freedom continue to evolve in a world still learning how to define them.
| LEGACY (1983–2012) — From Designer to Institution
The house enters history; its language continues through new voices
8. The MET Retrospective: The canonization of couture, fashion becomes art.
9. The Designers’ Legacy: Elbaz, Ford, Slimane: continuity and transformation of Saint Laurent’s codes.
Exhibit Gallery Model: Gallery 8 – The MET Retrospective
In 1983, Yves Saint Laurent became the first living designer honored with a retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a moment that elevated fashion to the realm of fine art.
This gallery recreates that sense of reverence and canonization. The space is bathed in museum-white light, with marble floors, mirrored ceilings, and glass vitrines housing Saint Laurent’s most iconic couture creations: the Mondrian dress, the safari jacket, the transparent blouse. Archival footage from the MET opening and letters between Saint Laurent and curator Diana Vreeland play softly on suspended screens, situating visitors in the moment when a designer’s vision transcended commerce to become culture.
The room’s design is intentionally neutral and contemplative, a sanctuary for form and legacy. The accompanying short film explores how the definition of “fashion as art” has shifted since 1983, inviting viewers to consider how Saint Laurent’s pursuit of beauty continues to influence what museums, and the world, deem worthy of preservation.
Exhibit Gallery Model: Gallery 9 – The Designers' Legacy
After Yves Saint Laurent’s retirement, the house entered a new era of transformation under the creative visions of Alber Elbaz, Tom Ford, and Hedi Slimane.
This gallery examines how each designer honored Saint Laurent’s legacy while reshaping the maison for a changing world. The space is designed with sleek minimalism– black glass, stainless steel, and glowing LED panels looping archival runway clips side by side with reinterpretations of iconic pieces: Le Smoking, the safari jacket, the see-through blouse.
Digital columns display silhouettes evolving across decades, their reflections dissolving into one another like a continuum of ideas. The atmosphere is cool and restrained, mirroring the precision and tension of succession, legacy as both inheritance and reinvention.
Across from the digital installations, the modern collection reimagines these same archetypes through contemporary materials and sharper geometry, proving that Saint Laurent’s vocabulary remains endlessly adaptable. A short film plays within the room, intercutting archival footage with new imagery, exploring the question that defines this chapter: How does a legend live on when its creator has stepped away?
| REBIRTH (2016–Present) — The Eternal Modern
Heritage reborn in the present — a meditation on continuity, innovation, and creation.
10. The Blue of Majorelle: Return to color, culture, and creative refuge in Marrakech.
11. The Modern Saint Laurent: Anthony Vaccarello’s era — brutalist elegance and cinematic sensuality.
12. The Eternal Atelier: A mirrored reconstruction of Yves’s workspace — creation as immortality.
Exhibit Gallery Model: Gallery 10 – The Blue of Majorelle
In Marrakech, Yves Saint Laurent discovered his sanctuary: a world of color, stillness, and rebirth.
This gallery immerses visitors in that spirit of renewal through deep Majorelle blue walls, golden Moroccan lanterns, and terracotta floors that radiate warmth and serenity.
Photographs and sketches from Yves’s time in his Jardin Majorelle studio line the space, revealing how Morocco became both his refuge and his greatest muse.
The scent of jasmine drifts through the air as soft wind and distant music evoke the cadence of the desert. This design mirrors the duality of Saint Laurent’s Marrakech, structured yet sensual, sacred yet spontaneous.
Opposite the archival garments, modern silhouettes reinterpret Yves’s North African inspirations through contemporary craftsmanship, a dialogue between cultural heritage and global modernity.
A short film completes the experience, contrasting the 1970s Marrakech of Saint Laurent’s exile and creativity with the present-day world, a meditation on how color, culture, and retreat remain essential to the act of creation.
Exhibit Gallery Model: Gallery 11 – Modern YSL
When Anthony Vaccarello took the helm of Saint Laurent in 2016, he distilled the house’s heritage into a new visual language: sharp, architectural, and cinematic. His world is one of structure and shadow: brutalist concrete, glass, and light sculpted with precision.
This gallery embodies his vision and leadership. LED panels cast moving reflections of recent campaigns, while mannequins in Vaccarello’s defining silhouettes (razor-cut tuxedos, feathered gowns, and sculptural leather) stand beside archival icons, revealing a seamless dialogue between past and present.
The design of the room itself mirrors Vaccarello’s discipline: bold minimalism as a form of sensuality.
The accompanying short film explores his expansion of Saint Laurent beyond fashion and into cinema, culture, and architecture, reaffirming the brand as a living institution rather than a monument. Here, the legacy of Yves meets the clarity of Vaccarello: a modern Saint Laurent that is powerful, restrained, and eternal.
Exhibit Gallery Model: Gallery 12 – The Eternal Atelier
The exhibition concludes with the twelfth gallery: the atelier, the heartbeat of Yves Saint Laurent’s genius.
This gallery recreates his workspace as a poetic monument to creation itself. The room glows in soft, overexposed white light, its mirrored surfaces multiplying sketches, muslin toiles, and fragments of fabric across infinity. On the central table rest Yves’s eyeglasses, cigarettes, and drawing tools, a quiet evocation of his presence.
Archival footage of the designer sketching fades into slow projections of contemporary artists and designers still inspired by his methods, reminding visitors that Saint Laurent’s legacy continues to shape the creative world.
Opposite these artifacts, the modern installation features garments left deliberately unfinished, symbolizing the continuity of the artistic process, that fashion, like memory, is never complete.
A faint soundtrack of pencil on paper and whispered fabric fills the air. Here, the exhibition ends with creation as immortality, and Yves Saint Laurent as its enduring architect.
YSL: The Exhibition is a hardcover monograph presenting the Yves Saint Laurent campaign through the lens of art, architecture, and permanence. Conceived as a curatorial study, the volume explores the intersection of fashion and philosophy, where material, light, and composition transcend trend to become language.
Printed on matte art paper, the publication functions as both archive and artifact, featuring a curated sequence of black and white photographs that examine the Maison’s enduring legacy through the themes of Authenticity, Simplicity, and Permanence. Each chapter reflects a devotion to clarity, stripped of excess, focused purely on form. No color, no distraction, only the object and the gaze that admires it.
Accompanied by essays and visual annotations, the book situates the campaign not within commerce but within culture, a dialogue between art and form. Here, luxury is no longer an object to be acquired, but an experience to be contemplated: proof that true refinement exists beyond time.
Digital Microsite Model
In addition to the exhibition book, this gallery campaign will feature a digital microsite, a temporary online experience created to accompany the campaign’s physical installation. Available only during the exhibition period, it extends the world of Yves Saint Laurent into the digital realm.
The site offers exclusive access to campaign photography, behind-the-scenes editorials, installations, history, and essays. Certain sections require a private access code, creating a sense of secrecy and exclusivity within the fashion community.
Designed to feel intimate and rare, the microsite invites viewers to engage not as consumers, but as the exhibition's guests. It is a quiet space for observation and a modern relic that exists only for a moment, before disappearing like the exhibition itself.