Fifteen years after Yves Saint Laurent retired, a new photography book revisits the designer’s most influential accessories. The 400-page tome features jewelry, purses, shoes, and hats created from the very beginning of Laurent’s career — when he designed his first collection for Christian Dior at age 21 — up to his final presentation in 2002. “One can never overstate the importance of accessories,” he once said. “They are what turns a dress into something else.”
Yves Saint Laurent Accessories, out October 4 from Phaidon Press, features colorful Polaroids of models, sketches, and behind-the-scenes portraits of the designer at work. The Yves Saint Laurent Foundation in Paris, which houses a private archive of more than 20,000 accessories, helped design and edit the volume, which was made to look like a jewelry box. Two museums will open exhibitions this month to honor the late designer — the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris and the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech. Click ahead to preview the book.
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Yves Saint Laurent Accessories by Patrick Mauriés
Bird Earrings (Made by Goossens) and Brooch (Made by Sabbagh), Worn With a Long Evening Outfit, Spring/Summer 1988 Haute Couture Collection.
Yves Saint Laurent Accessories by Patrick Mauriés
Headdress Created by Claude Lalanne, Autumn/Winter 1981 Haute Couture Collection.
Yves Saint Laurent Accessories by Patrick Mauriés
Flower Earrings in Enamelled Metal, Flower Necklace Made of Enamelled Metal and Pieces of Mother-of-Pearl, Butterfly Brooches Made of Mother-of-Pearl, Worn With a Long Evening Outfit, Spring/Summer 1992 Haute Couture Collection.
Yves Saint Laurent Accessories by Patrick Mauriés
Yves Saint Laurent and Model Amalia Backstage at the Spring/Summer 2000 Haute Couture Show, Inter-Continental Hotel, Paris, January 2000.
Yves Saint Laurent Accessories by Patrick Mauriés
Sheet of Designs for the Autumn/Winter 1962 Haute Couture Collection, Incorporating Some of the Hats in the Collection.
Yves Saint Laurent Accessories by Patrick Mauriés
Sketch of the ‘Heart’ Necklace by Yves Saint Laurent for an Article by Laurence Benaïm on the History of This Jewel, Vogue (France), November 1990. It Reads: ‘What Could be More Beautiful for a Woman Than to Have Passion Clasped Around Her Neck in the Form of a Heart?’
Yves Saint Laurent Accessories by Patrick Mauriés
Yves Saint Laurent in His Studio During Preparations for a Show, 5 Avenue Marceau, Paris, 1986.