Yesterday, as I was supposed to be leaving San Francisco, I managed to squeeze in the press preview for the Yves Saint Laurent exhibition at the de Young museum.  In my blase travel gear, (Converse, oversized slouchy tees and skirt), I hadn’t realised that YSL royalty was going to be there in the form of Pierre Bergé who was there to introduce the exhibition and say some words which I badly recorded below.  He requoted his famous quote of Chanel giving liberty to women and YSL gave them power but also said this…

“I don’t know if fashion is art.  But I do know you need to be an artist to create fashion.”

I have mountains of images to post but that will come post jet lag laggedness… I will however post this one image of Betty Catroux, one of Yves’ muses, who also was there in her black clad-icy blonde glory.

:: Source: Style Bubble

I suppose it was inevitable. After the death of Yves Saint Laurent this past June came the eulogies, the tributes and now the dismantlement of the art collection amassed lovingly over the course of his and Pierre Berge’s long and productive life together. The collection will be auctioned by Christie’s sometime in February 2009 (a precise date has not yet been announced).

At the insistence of Berge, the sale will take place in Paris with all profits going to the Fondation Pierre Berge - Yves Saint Laurent. (Source) The collection is believed to be worth up to 300 million pounds ($599 million USD) and has been dubbed by French newspaper Le Figaro as “the sale of the century”. In addition to a range of Old Masters, the collection is said to include a stunning array of modern art treasures from such luminaries as Picasso, Warhol, Mondrian and Leger. (Source) The duo’s collection also includes an extremely eclectic mix of objets d’art ranging from Renaissance bronze sculptures to Art Deco masterpieces by Armand-Albert Rateau, Eileen Gray and others.

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The curators of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts are currently in the midst of packing up the more than 145 exquisite creations that make up the tribute to the late Yves Saint Laurent. The garments, which span forty years of groundbreaking fashion design and inspired countless other designers, will now make their way to San Francisco where they will grace the galleries of the de Young Museum from November 1 until March 1, 2009.

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