An unforgettable journey through art history with Yves Saint Laurent as a guide. January 1962 saw the launch of the very first collection by Yves Saint Laurent. To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of his couture house, the Musee Yves Saint Laurent Paris is organizing a unique retrospective of the couturier's work that juxtaposes his creations with art works from the collections of four major Paris institutions: the Musee d'Orsay, the Centre Pompidou, the Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and the Musee Picasso, as well as presenting a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the secrets of couture at the Musee Yves Saint Laurent. From the ancient world to pop art, Yves Saint Laurent regularly took inspiration from art history as he combined colours, carved out new forms and rethought the structure of garments in order to create his own masterpieces. Here, androgynous silhouettes and Proustian gowns stand alongside Manet's Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe, feather patterns respond to Jackson Pollock's drip paintings, flowing silhouettes merge with a mural by Raoul Dufy, Lucio Fontana's neon lights make metallic fabrics sparkle and the motifs on a coat echo The Dance by Henri Matisse. Exploring the couturier's deliberate homages to the masters of art and his never-ending quest for new means of aesthetic expression, this book takes readers on an unforgettable journey through art history with Yves Saint Laurent as a guide.

Yves Saint Laurent (1936 2008) is credited with reviving French haute couture in the 1960s, with making ready-to-wear reputable, and with using non-European cultural references. In addition to the kaleidoscope of images in this book, a coterie of tastemakers have supplied listings that encompass YSL s style inspirations (C is for Costumes, as exemplified by the Russian theme of the famed autumn-winter 1976 77 collection; T is for Tuxedo, which the designer initially referenced with his 1965 Le Smoking ) and important facets of his life (J is for Jardin Majorelle, the garden of the couturier s paradisiacal retreat in Marrakech; R is for Rive Gauche, the bohemian, chic neighbourhood of Paris where the YSL boutique is situated and also the name of the house s famous perfume launched in 1970). This distillation and celebration of the designer s life reveals the inner world of a twentieth-century master.