Exhibition

SAINT LAURENT rive gauche

La révolution de la mode

from 5 March to 17 July 2011

An afternoon reserved
for the PRESS :
Thursday 3 March 2011
from 2.00 pm to 8.00 pm

Betty Catroux, Yves Saint Laurent

and Loulou de la Falaise
at the inauguration of the first
Saint Laurent rive gauche boutique
at New Bond Street in London
10 September 1969

© Wesley/Keystone/Getty Images

Curator Pierre Bergé

Artistic Director Loulou de la Falaise
Adviser Dominique Deroche
Exhibition designer Christophe Martin

The Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent dedicates its 15th exhibition
to the prêt-à-porter brand Saint Laurent rive gauche. Nearly seventy looks
will be presented in the exhibition space on avenue Marceau, which has
been remodeled to recapture the decor of the first Saint Laurent rive gauche
boutique, inaugurated in September 1966 on rue de Tournon.

The Yves Saint Laurent retrospective held at Petit Palais from March to August
2010 retraced 40 years of haute couture creation and plunged 300,000 visitors
into another universe, one of perfection and of daydreams. With the Yves Saint
Laurent rive gauche exhibition, Pierre Bergé shows us how Yves Saint Laurent
accomplished a strong social and political act by creating a prêt-à-porter brand
in his name.

Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent / 5, avenue Marceau / 75116 Paris
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Dress and pull-over, Saint Laurent rive gauche, from the Autumn-Winter collection 1971. Photo © Sophie Carre

Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent / 5, avenue Marceau / 75116 Paris

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 A bas le Ritz ! Vive la rue !

Saint Laurent rive gauche was

born from Yves Saint Laurent’s
will alone to make his creations
accessible to a greater number of
women. The famous designer did
not want to limit himself by only
dressing very rich women, he who
was in touch with the women of
his epoch. Barely five years after
having founded his haute couture
fashion house with Pierre Bergé,
Yves Saint Laurent was to be the
first designer to launch a prêt-à-
porter brand in his name.

The first boutique opened at

21 rue de Tournon, in the sixth
arrondissement of Paris, on 26
September 1966. Catherine
Deneuve was the guest of honor at
the inauguration.

Saint Laurent rive gauche, 1967 collection

Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent / 5, avenue Marceau / 75116 Paris
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 Yves Saint Laurent’s decision was not a business strategy but a genuine
commitment, a political act, a will with a social aim. In the 60s, women had just
begun to claim their rights. They did not ask permission from their fathers or
husbands to go and demonstrate in the streets. They gained importance in the
labor market, sometimes rebelled against its injustices and little by little they
succeeded in changing their status and living conditions, both professionally
and socially. These are the women that Yves Saint Laurent wanted to reach.
In creating rive gauche, he established a permanent dialogue between the
women and himself, himself and the street.

Elle, 8 December 1966

Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent / 5, avenue Marceau / 75116 Paris

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Saint Laurent rive gauche, 1967 collection. Photo © DR

Saint Laurent rive gauche, 1971 collection. Photo © DR

Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent / 5, avenue Marceau / 75116 Paris
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 A split

This act marked the end of

fashion as it had previously
existed; the end of strict
rules, diktats and rigid codes.
In making this radical choice,
Yves Saint Laurent led the
way to the future by bringing
fashion into social territory.
Chanel had gained the first
foothold; by forgetting the
corset and proposing pants
to women, she gave them
freedom. Yves Saint Laurent
picked up from where she left
off by sliding the suit off the
shoulders of men and onto
those of women in the form of
Le smoking. In doing so, he
gave women power.

This shock turned the world

of fashion upside down. With
rive gauche, Yves Saint
Laurent did not decide, as
was expected of his time, to
create simplified adaptations Saint Laurent rive gauche, 1972 collection. Photo © DR
of his haute couture looks.
Instead, he offered stand-alone fashion, which made the prices significantly
more accessible. He claimed, “I want to break away from the idea that haute
couture is the sole image of fashion. Fashion is what can be worn. This is
the main square, not a closed circle” (1). He then adapts himself to what a
factory is capable of producing, and takes into consideration the constraints
of industrial fabrication. For the designer, the most important step in the rive
gauche creation process is the fitting. He explains, “a piece of rive gauche
clothing must fit everyone, it’s for this reason that the fittings are, for me, so
important. It is imperative that the fabrication in the factory is impeccable”. (1)

(1) In Glamour n°64, May 1994, p.86-88

Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent / 5, avenue Marceau / 75116 Paris
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 Saint Laurent rive gauche, circa 1970
Navy blue woolen sailor’s jacket, white silk scarf branded YSL, blue woolen beanie
(Sailor’s jacket from the Anouschka collection)

Photo (c) Sophie Carre

Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent / 5, avenue Marceau / 75116 Paris
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 Saint Laurent rive gauche offered clothes to accompany free, young and ac-
tive women in their everyday lives, to makes up the wardrobe of the contempo-
rary woman. Yves Saint Laurent borrows several uniforms from men, such as:
the sailor’s jacket, the safari jacket, the suit, the trench coat, military jackets,
coachman’s capes… The knitted dresses are light and casual and the skirts
brightened up with little tops. He wants to offer a style more than a fashion,
to eliminate the superfluous in order to attain the essential in proposing basic
looks that women can count on.

At this time, the night is a

party and people go out all
week long. Saint Laurent
rive gauche dresses women
from morning to dawn. The
little silver dresses accom-
panied by shiny, gilded tights
are a huge hit and the rive
gauche accessories are
as popular as the clothes.
Leather, laced or braided, is
placed around the neck or
forehead, wide belts are put
around the waist of bohemian
skirts, floppy hats have wide
brims, boots have laces and
are made of bicolor leather,
and thigh boots make an ap-
pearance with long leggings.
The rive gauche woman is
sure of herself and of her
femininity.
Saint Laurent rive gauche, 1971 collection. Photo © DR

Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent / 5, avenue Marceau / 75116 Paris
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 Saint Laurent rive gauche, Spring-Summer collection 1967
Saffron-colored shantung silk dress, silk necktie, square hoop tortoiseshell belt,
sky-blue cotton hat
(Belt from the E2 collection)

Photo (c) Sophie Carre

Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent / 5, avenue Marceau / 75116 Paris
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 Saint Laurent rive gauche, Autumn-Winter collection 1969
Cotton piqué floral dress embroidered with white tassels
(from the Didier Ludo collection)

Photo (c) Sophie Carre

Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent / 5, avenue Marceau / 75116 Paris
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 Living in his time!

Saint Laurent rive gauche, like all the work of Yves Saint Laurent, is resolutely
contemporary. Yves Saint Laurent did not find his inspiration in the past, but
was up-to-date with each of society’s transformations. He knew perfectly well
how to capture the importance of the moment, which enabled him to project
himself into the future.

For this exhibition, we reconstruct the boutique as it was at the time. Yves
Saint Laurent entrusted the design of the space on rue de Tournon to the
young decorator Isabelle Hebey. She remembers, “I got to know Yves Saint
Laurent, who entrusted me with the installation of his boutiques in France and
in the rest of the world, always while searching for the balance between three
essential points in each boutique: aluminum, orange and not white, so that the
dresses would be presented in an enveloping warmth”. (2)

(2) In Jardin des Modes, 1968. p.94-95

Interior of the Saint Laurent rive gauche boutique at 21 rue de Tournon, Paris
In the background: portrait of Yves Saint Laurent by Eduardo Arroyo, 1966

Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent / 5, avenue Marceau / 75116 Paris
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 She goes on to add Djinn benches covered in purple material that had been
drawn one year earlier by a 27 year old designer, Olivier Mourgue, and the
lamps by Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi. The clients are welcomed
by a life-size portrait of Yves Saint Laurent, painted by Eduardo Arroyo, one of
the founders of the figuration narrative movement who fled Francoist Spain in
1958. The back of the boutique overlooked a courtyard featuring the famous
Nanas sculptures by Niki de Saint Phalle, who had just joined a group of new
realists.

Betty Catroux in a Saint Laurent rive gauche boutique. Photo © DR

Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent / 5, avenue Marceau / 75116 Paris
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 Saint Laurent rive gauche, circa 1966
Black vinyl trench-coat, black woolen knit

Photo (c) Sophie Carre

Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent / 5, avenue Marceau / 75116 Paris
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 Loulou de la Falaise. Photo © DR

Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent / 5, avenue Marceau / 75116 Paris
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 SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS FOR THIS EXHIBITION

Exhibition catalogue

SAINT LAURENT rive gauche

La révolution de la mode

The exhibition catalogue has been published in colla-

boration with Les Editions de La Martinière

Sale price: 35€

Format 22.5 x 27cm, 176 pages with approximately 150 illustrations

Texts
Yves Saint Laurent pénètre sur le territoire social by Pierre Bergé
L’embarquement pour rive gauche by Jéromine Savignon
La beauté pour tous by Gilles de Bure

The catalogue will be on sale:

- at the Fondation’s boutique from 5 March 2011
- in bookshops from 17 March 2011

Saint Laurent rive gauche coloring book

Editions p’tit Glénat

Large format, 25cm x 36cm : 10€

Small format, 12.5cm x 18cm : 5€

40 color pages, bilingual edition

The coloring book will be on sale:

- from the Fondation’s boutique from 5 March 2011
- in bookshops from 17 March 2011

Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent / 5, avenue Marceau / 75116 Paris
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 PRACTICAL INFORMATION

Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent

5 avenue Marceau, 75116 Paris
Phone: +33 (0)1 44 31 64 00

Exhibition space
3 rue Léonce Reynaud, 75116 Paris
Open from Tuesday to Sunday, except public holidays
from 11.00am to 6.00pm (last entry at 5.30pm)
with late night on Thursday until 9.00pm (last entry at 8.30pm)
Phone: +33 (0)1 44 31 64 31

Accessible for people with disabilities

7€ full price

5€ for students, people under 25, seniors (upon presentation of a valid card)

Free for children under 10 and the unemployed

www.fondation-pb-ysl.net

PRESS / COMMUNICATION
Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent

Laetitia Roux – Tél. +33 (0)1 44 31 64 17

l.roux@fondation-pb-ysl.net

Olivier Flaviano – Tél. +33 (0)1 44 31 64 19

o.flaviano@fondation-pb-ysl.net

Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent / 5, avenue Marceau / 75116 Paris
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 FONDATION PIERRE BERGÉ - YVES SAINT LAURENT

The Pierre Bergé -Yves Saint Laurent Foundation opened in 2002 is the result
of forty years of creation. It retraces the history of fashion as created by Yves
Saint Laurent, fashion that reveals the inner workings of society. By making use
of masculine codes, he brought women a sense of security and daring whilst
preserving their femininity. These clothes are part of 20th century history. They
have accompanied women’s emancipation in every domain, be it personal,
social or political.

Forty years of passion combined with memories that are transformed into new
projects, thus continuing this long-begun adventure.

The mission of the Pierre Bergé -Yves Saint Laurent Foundation, a state-
recognized foundation since the 5th of December 2002, is to:
• Conserve 5,000 garments, 15,000 haute couture accessories and 35,000
sketches and other items that bear witness to Yves Saint Laurent’s
creativity;
• Organize exhibitions: fashion, paintings, photographs, drawings etc.;
• Support artistic, cultural and educational projects.

In 2010, the Foundation was given the Jardin Majorelle in Marrakech, saved
by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé in 1980, and which will become The
Berber Museum in June 2011.

Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent / 5, avenue Marceau / 75116 Paris
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 Coming soon to the Foundation
Gisèle Freund, photographie (working title)
October 2011 – January 2012

Exhibitions at the Foundation

David Hockney : Fleurs fraîches, 2010

Vanité. Mort, que me veux-tu ?, 2010
Les derniers Maharajas, 2010

Le costume populaire russe, 2009

Jean-Michel Frank, un décorateur dans le Paris des années 30, 2009

David Seidner Photographies, 2008 / 2009

Une Passion marocaine Caftans, Broderies, Bijoux, 2008

Yves Saint Laurent Théâtre, Cinéma, Music-hall, Ballet, 2007 / 2008

Yves Saint Laurent Nan Kempner, une américaine à Paris, 2007

Yves Saint Laurent Voyages Extraordinaires, 2006 / 2007

André Ostier Photographies, 2006

Yves Saint Laurent Smoking Forever, 2005 / 2006

Robert Wilson Les Fables de La Fontaine, 2004 / 2005

Yves Saint Laurent Dialogue avec l’art, 2004

Touring of the Yves Saint Laurent Retrospective, Petit Palais, 2010

Spain
MAPFRE Foundation, Madrid, October 2011 to January 2012

Unites States of America

The Denver Art Museum, Denver, March to June 2012

Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent / 5, avenue Marceau / 75116 Paris
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 Overseas exhibitions

Morocco
Yves Saint Laurent et le Maroc, Jardin Majorelle
Marrakech, du 27 novembre 2010 au 18 mars 2011
Yves Saint Laurent et le Maroc, Villa des Arts, Fondation ONA
Casablanca, du 15 avril au 17 juillet 2011

Brazil
Viagens Extraordinarias, Centro Cultural de Brasil
Rio, 2009

United States of America

Yves Saint Laurent Style, de Young Museum
San Francisco, 2008 - 2009

Canada
Yves Saint Laurent Style, Musée des Beaux-Arts
Montréal, 2008

Spain
Dialogo con el Arte, Fondation Caixa Galicia
La Coruña, 2008

Sponsorship

Palais de Tokyo : Modules Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent

Paris Autumn Festival
Nuit Blanche 2010
Amis de Jean Cocteau
Jean Giono Prize
Médiathèque Musicale Mahler
IFM (French Fashion Institute)
ANDAM (National Association for the Development of the Fashion Arts)

Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent / 5, avenue Marceau / 75116 Paris
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Blouses, Saint Laurent rive gauche, from the Spring-Summer collection 1969. Photo © Sophie Carre

Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent / 5, avenue Marceau / 75116 Paris
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