Sheer: The Diaphanous Creations of Yves Saint Laurent

Event Description

Entitled “Transparences: Le pouvoir des matières,” this exhibition looks at transparency as an artistic expression of Yves Saint Laurent. It’s described as “the second chapter of a story that began last summer at the Museum of Lace and Fashion in Calais.” Transparency is incompatible, the museum’s curators point out, with the function of clothing itself, meant to cover the body. Yet Yves Saint Laurent was intrigued by this contradiction, and starting in the 1960s, started using materials like chiffon and lace. To quote: “Like a leitmotif, he regularly employed transparency during his forty creative years, at times alongside embroidered or opaque fabrics. He daringly reconciled these contradictions, allowing women to proudly and boldly assert their bodies.”