Yves Saint Laurent by Alexandra & Pierre Boulat

For over thirty years, Alexandra and Pierre had exclusive access to Yves Saint Laurent, documenting his personal life and work, from his first collection in 1962 to his last in 2002.

Pierre Boulat produced his first story on Yves Saint Laurent for LIFE Magazine in 1962. The twelve-page cover story followed the designer as he created the first collection in his own name over the course of a month. This series began a long association that spanned both their lifetimes, culminating in Alexandra Boulat taking over from her father thirty years later.

In 1998, Yves Saint Laurent put three hundred models on the lawn of the Stade de France for the World Cup soccer tournament, and in anticipation of the event, Paris Match assigned Alexandra to photograph it. Reimagining what her father had done for Yves Saint Laurent’s first collection while designing for Christian Dior, Alexandra then documented the global fashion icon’s final collection in 2002.

This exhibition showcases both Yves Saint Laurent’s iconic creations and intimate moments from behind the scenes of his fashion shows and personal life with his partner, Pierre Bergé. The collection of images explores the designer’s evolving aesthetics and the shifting boundaries of fashion throughout the last century.

“His fifty-five-year-old eyes have collected the greatest artistic repertoire, a refined taste in the harmony of untouched youth.”

– Pierre Boulat.