SAM - Yves Saint Laurent

Before the first of the year I ventured to the Seattle Art Museum for the Yves Saint Laurent: The Perfection of Style installation. I'm really not much of a fashion person, but I did enjoy the exhibition. Most precisely I really was taken by the documentation of the process.

This drawing with the fabric sample is a good example. You could see where he was going with things.

Another great example. All were pretty casually rendered, pencil, colored pencil with the fabric merely pinned on.

This gives you an idea of just how many of these "sketches" were included.

A different process, but I like to see stuff like this - a contact sheet of some black and white still negatives with some cropping and notation marks on them.

The Mondrian inspired dress form the 1960's.

This was a stunning suede dress.

Plenty of accessories to go around.

The process here again. This was a Greek mythology inspired gown with the original artwork for the displayed behind it.

These are all wooden molds for creating these wonderful hats.

As I said earlier, I'm not much of a slave to fashion, but one of the things I read at the show, and saw in the work is the contrast between the pieces, and sometimes within a garment. For example the "cut" and "fit" was everything and these suits, in fact, are one of the first pant suits illustrate it. The cut and the pleats make it.

Some of the more interesting pieces contrasted the "fit" vs. the "drape". Knowing when to fit and when and where to drape and the documentation surrounding I found fascinating.