VOYAGE
Scandal Haute Couture
Exposition poster “Yves Saint Laurent 1971. La collection du scandale”. Photo © Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent, Paris
Exposition poster “Yves Saint Laurent 1971. La collection du scandale”. Photo © Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent, Paris
Scetches of Yves Saint Laurent Haute Couture spring-summer 1971. Photo © Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent, Paris
Trouser suit, Yves Saint Laurent Haute Couture spring-summer 1971. Photo © Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent, Paris
Trouser suit, Yves Saint Laurent Haute Couture spring-summer 1971. Photo © Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent, Paris
Trouser suit, Yves Saint Laurent Haute Couture spring-summer 1971. Photo © Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent, Paris
Dress with a fur boa, Yves Saint Laurent Haute Couture spring-summer 1971. Photo © Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent, Paris
Green fox fur coat, Yves Saint Laurent Haute Couture spring-summer 1971. Photo © Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent, Paris
Model in a famous green fox fur coat, Yves Saint Laurent Haute Couture spring-summer 1971. Photo © Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent, Paris
А long dress with a Greek print, Yves Saint Laurent Haute Couture spring-summer 1971. Photo © Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent, Paris
A short dress with embroidered corset, Yves Saint Laurent Haute Couture spring-summer 1971. Photo © Sophie Carre
A short evening dress with a red suede belt, Yves Saint Laurent Haute Couture spring-summer 1971. Photo © Sophie Carre
An evening coat with “Lips” print, Yves Saint Laurent Haute Couture spring-summer 1971. Photo © Sophie Carre
Detail of the evening coat with “Lips” print, Yves Saint Laurent Haute Couture spring-summer 1971. Photo © Sophie Carre
The retrospective of «The Scandal Collection» Spring-Summer 1971 was opened in Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent. Visitors can see 40 original pieces of Yves Saint Laurent’s haute couture collection, images and sketches and try to understand why it was so provocative.
“What do I want? To shock people, to force them to think,” – explained Yves Saint Laurent to the press which criticized the haute couture collection and called it “fashion faux pas”. On January 29, 1971, he presented the “Liberation” collection, which was inspired by the fashion of the war years, when Paris was under the Nazi Occupation. Short dresses, wedges, squared shoulders, knee-length skirts and exaggerated makeup – 80 designs worn by six models caused such a scandal that Yves Saint Laurent had to take a break before he could present a new collection.
The exhibition curator Olivier Saillard notes “the press, which saw in him the only legitimate heir to the great tradition of French haute couture, could not forgive him the squared shoulders, knee-length skirts, and wedged shoes which were reminders of the years of deprivation and restriction through which most of them had lived.”
”The “Liberation” collection brought down the walls separating haute couture from ready-to-wear and gave a way to a retro trend. Nowadays when we speak about 70’s fashion we remember this haute couture Spring-Summer 1971. Its elements are found in modern designs too: “lips” print, colored fur, wedges, etc.
This exhibition proves: what shock us today and seems strange at first glance may become an example to follow tomorrow. Never scold the things you don’t understand! The exhibition works till July 19.
Fontation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent in Paris: 3 rue Léonce Reynaud, 16ème
Tél.: +33 (0)1 44 31 64 31
Text by Rimma Ismagilova
