Yves Saint Laurent + Halston: Fashioning the 70s

Special Exhibitions GalleryFebruary 6, 2015 - April 18, 2015

ONLINE EXHIBITION

 

Yves Saint Laurent and Halston were the most famous and influential fashion designers of the 1970s. Drawing inspiration from menswear, foreign cultures, and historical periods, Saint Laurent and Halston crafted a new, chic, and modern way of dressing that became synonymous with the sexy and glamorous lifestyle of the decade. While they and their designs are recognizable to fashion enthusiasts and monographic books and exhibitions on each designer abound, Yves Saint Laurent + Halston: Fashioning the 70s was the first exhibition to juxtapose and analyze their contributions to fashion at the height of their careers, as well as how they came to exemplify this singular, dynamic era in fashion history.

Drawn exclusively from the holdings of The Museum at FIT, the exhibition offered a unique perspective on two of the best-known fashion designers in modern history. The museum's collections hold the Halston Archives—the most comprehensive records of his work in the world—as well as a vast array of significant Yves Saint Laurent pieces donated by important clients, fashion editors, friends, and colleagues of Saint Laurent. These include Lauren Bacall, Marina Schiano, Aimée de Heeren, Mary Russell, and Tina Chow. It is worth noting that the first major retrospective exhibition on Halston was organized at the museum in 1991 by the late curator Richard Martin.

The 1970s was a time of momentous change in fashion, not only in the look of clothes but also in the way they were designed, made, distributed, and consumed. This dichotomous decade—sandwiched between the counterculture 1960s and the opulent 1980s—witnessed the demise of haute couture's majestic reign and the simultaneous ascension of designer-led conglomerates. The shifting sands of style during the 1970s accelerated the relaxation of fashion codes. Eclectic individuality blended with a somber modernity that mirrored the dour economic mood of the decades early years. Perhaps because the 1970s was a period of such transition and uncertainty, its fashions are among the most challenging in modern fashion history to assess.

No two designers defined and dominated the decade more than Yves Saint Laurent and Halston. They were the era's most influential and celebrated clothing creators, becoming celebrities in their own right. Both have been the subject of countless books, articles, films, and exhibitions. Yet for all the justifiable attention and study they have received, the fashions created by Saint Laurent and Halston have not before been directly compared in an in-depth, significant way.

Yves Saint Laurent + Halston investigated how Yves Saint Laurent and Halston arrived at their now iconic styles by engaging with similar themes of menswear, exoticism, and historicism during the 1970s. While today they are considered diametrically opposed—Saint Laurent is viewed as the great colorist who imbued his clothes with a sense of drama and fantasy, while Halston is seen as the era's master of modernism and minimalism—the aesthetic similarities between their designs during the 1970s, particularly at the start of the decade, are undeniable.

As their styles matured, Saint Laurent and Halston gradually diverged so that by the end of the decade, their respective output contained looks that were distinct to each designer.

The entry room of the exhibition traced Saint Laurent's and Halston's careers in a dynamic illustrated timeline. Though very different in their output, the two shared many career parallels, particularly their rises and falls, from the onset of their careers in the 1950s to their respective struggles in the 1980s, which were eerily in sync.

The first section in the exhibition demonstrated how Saint Laurent and Halston drew on menswear when creating clothing for women. After the debut of his Le Smoking woman's tuxedo in 1966, Saint Laurent's experimentation with menswear reached a zenith in the 1970s. He played on different archetypes including the pinstripe "gangster" suit, safari jacket, and utilitarian jumpsuit throughout the decade to create looks that have become synonymous with a Saint Laurent style. Likewise, menswear informed many of Halston's best-known designs, including his most famous garment, the Ultrasuede shirtwaist dress. These classic pieces included cashmere turtlenecks, matching cardigans, Ultrasuede jackets, and trim trousers, which reflected Halston's own subtly unisex style.