Connect with the French fashion legend - Musée Yves Saint Laurent, Paris
Dear readers, did anyone of you watch the TV show “Becoming Karl Lagerfeld”? I first noticed the show because of the German-Spanish actor, Mr. Daniel Brühl, a while back, then it led me to see how he portraited this legendary fashion designer and his life. In the show, there are two other characters who revolves around this fashion designer’s life, and having a huge impact on him, one is the late French dandy, writer, also Karl’s longtime muse and companion, Mr. Jacques de Bascher (played by actor Mr. Théodore Pellerin), and the other one, is another legendary late French fashion designer, Mr. Yves Saint Laurent. While I just watched the first episode only, it’s quite intriguing to learn about Karl’s life through this show, and take a look with the dark side and struggle behind the glamorous fashion world, the platonic relationship in his love life, the rivalry, the toxicity and jealousy between fashion designers themselves. Last week I went by a second-hand book store, coincidentally I saw a novel titled “The Beautiful Fall: Fashion, Genius and Glorious Excess in 1970s Paris” written by British author Ms. Alicia Drake, which is a novel about the two mentioned fashion designers (actually it looked like it’s more about the story of Yves), a study of their career, obsessions, rivalry, and how they survive through the ever-changing fashion world through the 60s. At first I was thinking about to buy that book but eventually I didn’t, somehow seeing that book being buried with other stacks of old books just makes it looked very sad like in the graveyard of literature, secondly, I was thinking, if I was really that passionate and craving to learn about Yves’ story and his life, would it be even better, with my capabilities allowed, to go to the place where the designer once worked and see that in person, and connect myself with him there to see how his legacy will bring certain positive impact into my life? Actually, I did, as I just went to the Musée Yves Saint Laurent in Paris back in July, so I was happy to put down the novel, and revisit my memory here with you all.
I have an intense craving to visit Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris back in the peak of the pandemic, as I really want to see the fashion designer’s atelier workroom in Paris myself one day, I mean physically be there, to connect myself to his work-of-art, his life and creative genius; I am a true believer that the energy of a person left in a space, especially those places where an artist or intellect once lived and worked, their creative energy and spirit would still lingering in that space, and I was yearning to see how much of those kind of energy that I can take in, in combination with my own desire, determination and perseverance, to help me to enhance my creative and literature knowledge, sharpening my sense of style by their aesthetic and taste, even bettering myself as a person on picking up the positive traits from these legends.
It was a sunny morning when I arrived at the museum, and interestingly, I wasn’t the earliest one to wait at the entrance before the museum’s door opens! Located in the 16th arrondissement, neighboring with some other luxury lifestyle museums such as Palais Galliera and Galerie-Musée Baccarat, not to mention, it’s only a short walking distance to the famous luxury fashion shopping street, the Avenue Montaigne! Musée Yves Saint Laurent is literally located in the heart of the Paris high fashion area, the heart of Parisian haute couture glamour and elegance. Upon entered into the museum turning to the left, that’s where the visit begins, the grand salon that was furnishing in the classical French-style interior with artistic scrolled woodwork, gilded statues, framed mirror and the grand chandelier hanging from the ceiling, along with some artefacts of the fashion drawings and photographs of the fashion designer, giving the visitor a splendor and luxurious commencement to experience the couture glamour and artistry of this French designer’s maison, of course, there are a series of fashion photography as well which exhibited in another salon, that enables one to re-see these beautiful design of the fashion and haute couture pieces, also, having those famous models and celebrities who were wearing the piece designed by Yves, their elegant and impeccable style, that captured through the lens of esteemed fashion photographers.
Heading back to the entrance to its right, which comes to the second part of the visit; upon entered into the mysterious dark passage, it leads one to the first exhibition room, which showcased a series of exquisite archive fashion collection mostly in black color, yet, the romantic detail from the see-through chiffon and lace, along with the whimsical couture details from the dramatic pleats and luxurious fabrics, every piece of the couture work is a show-stopper! Then walking up to the stairs which leads one to another exhibition hall, once again, with the dramatic arrangement with dresses suspended in the middle of the room, with the large mirror on the floor reflecting the colorful and sparkling detail of each piece of couture like a floating beauty in the air, the archive fashion pieces in this room not only breathtaking but also giving the visitor an unspeakable allure to it.
Now it comes to the most exciting part of the exhibition, which is the workroom of Yves Saint Laurent! Unlike the rest of the exhibition salon all in dark shades, the atelier exhibition room of the designer’s is literally the brightest, retaining the original setting of the interior just like the fashion designer and his team are still working there; this room showcased the workspace of Yves along with his table top stationery, his fashion sketches, as well as different boxes of accessories which required to create a piece of exquisite couture gown; I was completely blown away by the numbers of books that kept in the bookshelves, and see how fanatic it is of Yves to source different inspirations from these discreetly collected books, in order to grind his creativity from thoughts into reality; at the same time, I tried to picture how stressful that is when he’s running out of thoughts, and what stimulates and motivates him to produce something new next when he was working at his desk? I also tried to visualize how the designer and his teammates running around to do the draping, the pinning, and altering each piece of couture, can you imagine how many legends had walked through this door when the designer was working hard to create something chic, unique and elegant? And this is the room where Yves’ namesake legacy was kept, and I was truly thrilled to be here in the designer’s atelier in person finally! Like turning a dream into reality, this experience is literally priceless.
If you are interested to watch some of the archive videos about Yves, there’s a film room which looped a couple of documentaries that enables visitors to sit down and revisit those historic fashion moments; while I was in a hurry which I can’t able to sit down and watch every single one of them, I managed to complete my last mission before I leave, and that is – souvenir shopping! If you would like to grab some solid memories about this visit at Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris, the best thing to do is to get some of their beautiful books and postcards, which documented in multiple themes from the biography, to his collection from the past to present, also, the history about his atelier workroom – a small book titled “Le studio d'Yves Saint Laurent: Miroir et Secrets”, written by French fashion historian writer, Ms. Jeromine Savignon, and that is exactly the copy that I got! Again, like I said at the beginning, I believe the kind of energy that the designer left behind in that space, of course by having this book, it’ll help me to recall such experience even after years later, which it will still be very vivid in my head.
Just in case you are also planning to visit this museum soon, my suggestion is to book your ticket online in advance to make your entry much smoother, anyway, hope you’ll be inspired.