Yves Saint Laurent in Yves Saint Laurent in Calais… “Fashions fade, style is eternal” Yves Saint Laurent Dress worn by Karen Mulder. 1996 Spring-Summer haute couture collection. Photograph by Claus Ohm © Yves Saint Laurent © Claus Ohm – DR Evening gown worn by Gurmitt Kaur Campbell. 1990 Autumn -Winter haute couture collection. © Yves Saint Laurent © Rights reserved At the internationally renowned Museum of Lace and Fashion in Calais, northern France, a major exhibition dedicated to the late great French couturier Yves Saint Laurent is eye-poppingly fabulous says Janine Marsh. The French have been famous for dressing well for centuries. As long ago as the 17th century – not long after the Mayflower carried pilgrims to North America and Isaac Newton published one of his most important scientific works Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687) – the French were turning fashion into an industry. The modern fashion show dates to the Paris in the 1860s, though it was a pioneering Englishman, fashion designer Charles Frederick Worth, who kicked it things off by using live models instead of mannequins to present his creations. 130 years later, on July 12, 1998, the great French designer Yves Saint Laurent created a monumental runway show at the Stade de France ahead of the Football World Cup final between France and Brazil. Lasting 15 Workshop specification sheet referred to as a “Bible page” of a short evening dress. 1966 Autumn -Winter haute couture collection. © Yves Saint Laurent minutes, the event involved 300 models, 900 backstage hands and 4,000 stadium staff. It was televised live to about 1.7 billion people. Yves Saint-Laurent was a showman and fashion visionary whose legacy lives on. The exhibition The Yves Saint Laurent Museum in Paris has teamed up with the Museum of Lace and Fashion in Calais for an exhibition that focuses on transparency - the way Yves Saint Laurent used nude effects in his designs. It will run until 12 November 2023 . A second exhibition (which will not be the same as this one), will open in Paris in February 2024. Seductive, sensuous, and shocking Born in Algeria in 1936, Yves Henry Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent was destined for fashion. Whilst still at school he won a 66 | The Good Life France The Good Life France | 67
