Karen disappeared behind a group of people on a guided tour at the Yves Saint Laurent exhibition at the De Young Museum. Dinah and I were perusing the Asian-inspired gowns when I heard a museum guide explaining something in detail at the same time herding the group closer towards us. Under normal circumstances, I would have joined in sneakily but, I decided not.
Dinah had asked earlier where Karen is. I answered she has probably skipped to another section to avoid this crowd. Moments later, we found her staring at a gown that is supposed to be Saint Laurent's tribute to Vincent Van Gogh - gowns with tops embroidered with metals, beads, sequins, and semiprecious stones that formed sort of like Van Gogh's sunflower paintings. A classic example of wearable art, I thought!
After two hours of drowning ourselves in haute-couture, we decided to break for lunch before we embark to yet another exhibition.
I couldn't help but wonder about Saint Laurent's inspiration for each piece. How about his design process? How many iterations did he work on before arriving at the final one? He was able to make use of organza flowers, satins, velvet, sequins, beads, semiprecious stones, and engraved copper into his pieces! Was he the first one to introduce tuxedo for women?
The ones that caught my attention are: (unfortunately, taking pictures is not allowed inside the exhibition hall, so no pictures) the Belle De Jour dress made for Catherine Deneuve, the knitted white wool wedding dress wrapped with white ribbons that resembles a cocoon, and the coat made from rooster, pheasant and vulture feathers. He was truly one of the most creative designers of the world!
~ral
(The picture above was taken at the De Young Museum in San Francisco during the Maya Lin exhibition which coincided with the YSL exhibition).
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