A view of the “The Flowers of Yves Saint Laurent” exhibition. Courtesy of the Yves Saint Laurent Museum
From September 20, 2024, to May 4, 2025, the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris will host “The Flowers of Yves Saint Laurent.” Curated by Olivier Saillard and Gaël Mamine, this exhibition follows an earlier show at the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, which ran from March 2, 2024, to January 5, 2025. This marks the first time the two museums have collaborated on an exhibition focused on a major theme in Yves Saint Laurent’s work.
Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergé surrounded themselves with flowers and gardens in their homes and at their fashion house. The couturier’s passion for flowers served as a boundless source of inspiration. He shared this admiration for nature with many artists and writers, including his favorite author, Marcel Proust. Saint Laurent revealed in a 1987 interview with L’Egoïste that he had been rereading Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time” since he was fifteen. Proust’s influence is evident in both Saint Laurent’s interiors and his runway shows, where he often depicted women as flowers.
The exhibition features over thirty garments and drawings, highlighting the connection between nature, literature, and Saint Laurent’s work. Each chapter of the exhibition pairs quotes from Proust with floral silhouettes by Saint Laurent, while accessories and drawings are displayed on pedestals. Visitors will encounter various flowers, from the lily of the valley, dear to Christian Dior, to the YSL logo’s lily-like monogram, roses symbolizing love, bougainvillea from Morocco, and wheat representing luck and triumph.
Iconic garments in the exhibition showcase Saint Laurent’s expertise in bringing floral designs to life, from his early embroidered dress in the spring-summer 1962 collection to the inventive prints of the spring-summer 2001 collection, inspired by Pierre Bonnard’s paintings. Notable pieces include the silk gazar flowers worn by Laetitia Casta as a summer bride in 1999.
The exhibition also features works by American artist Sam Falls, who collects plant samples from around the world and preserves their memory by printing their pigments on canvas. His reconstructed nature scenes blend seamlessly with Saint Laurent’s haute couture pieces, demonstrating how flowers transcend time and remain eternally in bloom.
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A view of the “The Flowers of Yves Saint Laurent” exhibition. Courtesy of the Yves Saint Laurent Museum
From September 20, 2024, to May 4, 2025, the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris will host “The Flowers of Yves Saint Laurent.” Curated by Olivier Saillard and Gaël Mamine, this exhibition follows an earlier show at the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, which ran from March 2, 2024, to January 5, 2025. This marks the first time the two museums have collaborated on an exhibition focused on a major theme in Yves Saint Laurent’s work.
Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergé surrounded themselves with flowers and gardens in their homes and at their fashion house. The couturier’s passion for flowers served as a boundless source of inspiration. He shared this admiration for nature with many artists and writers, including his favorite author, Marcel Proust. Saint Laurent revealed in a 1987 interview with L’Egoïste that he had been rereading Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time” since he was fifteen. Proust’s influence is evident in both Saint Laurent’s interiors and his runway shows, where he often depicted women as flowers.
The exhibition features over thirty garments and drawings, highlighting the connection between nature, literature, and Saint Laurent’s work. Each chapter of the exhibition pairs quotes from Proust with floral silhouettes by Saint Laurent, while accessories and drawings are displayed on pedestals. Visitors will encounter various flowers, from the lily of the valley, dear to Christian Dior, to the YSL logo’s lily-like monogram, roses symbolizing love, bougainvillea from Morocco, and wheat representing luck and triumph.
Iconic garments in the exhibition showcase Saint Laurent’s expertise in bringing floral designs to life, from his early embroidered dress in the spring-summer 1962 collection to the inventive prints of the spring-summer 2001 collection, inspired by Pierre Bonnard’s paintings. Notable pieces include the silk gazar flowers worn by Laetitia Casta as a summer bride in 1999.
The exhibition also features works by American artist Sam Falls, who collects plant samples from around the world and preserves their memory by printing their pigments on canvas. His reconstructed nature scenes blend seamlessly with Saint Laurent’s haute couture pieces, demonstrating how flowers transcend time and remain eternally in bloom.
