On 12 October 2018, the first year M.A. Fashion Studies class went to see the new exhibition Yves Saint Laurent: Dreams of the Orient at the Yves Saint Laurent Museum for their class Fashion History and Mediation. During this week, the class was researching and discussing the history of fashion museum, which started with collecting historical clothing for theatre costumes, to the modern way of creating a fashion museum that is based entirely around a brand and its history.This particular exhibition, Dreams of the Orient, started on the 2nd of October, 2018, and will end on January 27, 2019. It is curated by Aurélie Samuel, and juxtaposes haute couture and ready to wear by Yves Saint Laurent with actual historical garments and artworks from India, China, and Japan. It follows the design process of some of these pieces, from displays of original sketches, to fabric swatches, to finished garments. The exhibition also contains jewelry from these collections, and exhibits Yves Saint Laurent’s controversial perfume that debuted during this time: Opium.
One thing during the museum visit was very apparent: the pieces exhibited were clearly a product of their time. They feature Yves Saint Laurent’s perceptions of Asia, presented as a fantasy, to a particular clientele. The placing of historical garments and art next to the haute couture and ready to wear garments emphasises not only the research that Saint Laurent undertook, but also the fact that he took from actual cultures, actual people, in order to sell a fantasy of it.
This idea of taking was much discussed by the class, who are also researching cultural appropriation and orientalism in some of their other classes. Additionally, the exhibit brought to attention the voice of the curator in an exhibition; without its curator, Aurélie Samuel, who previously worked at the Musée Guimet, the Asian art museum in Paris, the exhibit might have lost its historical context.
Written by: Amanda Stedman, MA Fashion Studies
Photos by: Victoria Nergaard, MA Fashion Studies
