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| Yves Saint Laurent // Photo by Vicor Soto via Flickr |
Bibby Sowray, The Daily Telegraph, January 19, 2015
The first comprehensive UK exhibition devoted to Yves Saint Laurent's ground-breaking designs will take place at the Bowes Museum in County Durham.
Pierre Bergé, the former partner of the late Yves Saint Laurent and president of the Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent, has bypassed London as the location for the first UK exhibition of the designer’s work, opting for County Durham instead.
‘Yves Saint Laurent: Style Is Eternal’ will open at the Bowes Museum in the town of Barnard Castle, County Durham on July 11. Some 50 garments from the designer’s archives will be on display, including iconic pieces from the Russian Collection, the Mondrian dresses, the famous Le Smoking tuxedo first unveiled in 1966, and the Safari jacket.
“If Chanel gave women their freedom, it was Saint Laurent who empowered them,” said Pierre Bergé of the impact Saint Laurent’s ground-breaking designs had on the way we understand womenswear today.
The Bowes Museum was designed by John Bowes, the illegitimate son of the 10th Earl of Strathmore, and his French wife Josephine Chevalier, the Countess of Montalbo, to resemble a French chateau. Sadly, both died before their plans came to fruition and the museum opened in 1892. Bergé described it as “the perfect setting for us – a museum built as a French chateau, in the age of the Second Empire.”
“The Bowes Museum is a natural destination given its exceptional work with fashion and textiles; the museum and its location also clearly reflects Yves Saint Laurent’s and my own passion for inspiring, timeless places,” he added.
The exhibition will run until October 25, meaning the UK will be home to two major fashion exhibitions this year; Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty will run at the V&A Museum fro March 14 until July 19.
This article was written by Bibby Sowray from The Daily Telegraph and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.
