Yves Saint Laurent: The Retrospective

This summer I got the chance to visit the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit at the Denver Art Museum.  I felt so lucky that its only North American stop was right in my backyard.  

On my way into the exhibit, I stopped with my kids at a fun design station the art museum had in conjunction with the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit.  There was an activity for each step in the design process.  My kids loved doing it, and I thought it was pretty fun too.  :)

First, we made inspiration boards:

Then we sketched.  If you weren't artistically inclined, there were lightboxes you could use to trace templates.  I drew my own clothing, but I'm awful at drawing people, so I traced the form.  Now I kind of want my own lightbox--that would making pattern tracing SO much easier!

 

 

Here's my sketch!  

After sketching, you could drape a dress form, make a little tiny draped dress on a toy dress form, and model dresses on the runway.  I didn't bother with these, since I couldn't actually make what I wanted.  :)  But my kids thought they were great, which was kind of the point anyway.  :)

 

 

After having fun with the fashion design, I entered the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit.

 

Photography is absolutely prohibited in the exhibit (and they mean it!  I saw one lady get angrily booted from the exhibit!), so I got a few pictures from the Denver Post website and the Denver Art Museum website to show you (The two above, however, are mine.  No rules against taking a picture of the entrance...).

The exhibit starts of with his years as a designer at Dior.  

And then moves, somewhat chronologically (but not strictly so) through his other designs.  

They also had an area with his world-inspired designs...

...and an entire hall dedicated his use of color...

...not to mention, all of his tuxedo suits.

At the end of the exhibit was a display of his ball gowns.  

 

Since photography wasn't allowed, I took notes on my program about which dresses were my favorites, and then looked them up later in the exhibit's book.  

The Dior years are my favorite, since really I'm a Dior girl at heart.  The 1950s silhouette is my favorite.  

The colors in this one were amazing.  

I thought this was such a cute secretary-style dress.

Grace Kelly wore this one! 

I typically prefer the dresses, but I liked this pantsuit.  I especially liked the bow blouse and the cute hat.  Hats need to make a comeback.  :)

 

This one was from a collection of his that did not do well. I love this dress though.  It was made in the 1970s, but with a 1940s flair.  I'd wear it.  

This cape was amazing.  

There were so many beautiful clothes in that exhibit!  I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did!