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Sunday's Tribute to Yves Saint Laurent and His Art.

by tiha zaman | July 26, 2008 at 08:56 pm

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PARIS (Reuters) - The private art collection of French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge has been put up for auction and will be sold in February 2009, auction house Christie's said on Wednesday.

Saint Laurent, one of the leading figures in 20th century French fashion, who was born in Algeris and died in Paris in June at the age of 71.

It's a crisp morning in Kuala Lumpur and as Sunday news go, it should be stress free and relaxing as Sundays are.

I remembered years ago when I was taking a High School english oral exam and the examiner asked me who is the person I admire the most and the answer I gave was Yves Saint Laurent. Perhaps at the time the only reason I said that because I liked how his name sounded, like it seemed to slither and roll off your tongue (pronouce: Eves-Sen-Law-Rwont), very elegant, very chic, very...French.

But as I grew up, I realize that Yves wasn't just a great name. The man himself was nothing short of being a genius creator. He created a fashion house empire at the age of 21, made haute-couture affordable to the bourgeois and the masses. And importantly, validated pant-suits to women worldwide.

I know it doesn't seem much in our time where pants are nothing but another addition to a woman's neverending growing closet. But during the 1950's a pant suit was "men's only" liberty, and Yves made it alright for women to look professional, sheek and sexy even in pants. I mean there is no other designer in the world who did the same to men's fashion. You don't see Marc Jacobs, or Dior make halter dresses credible for men!

And in the final act of selling Yves's art collections next year, it is as if I'm reading a piece of news that marks a final goodbye to his life. And his collections are nothing petite of impressive, including several hundred pieces of Rennaisance jewelery, the art works of Picasso, Matisse and the manuscripts of the French authors of Gustave Flaubert and Andre Gide.

The auction house declined to estimate how much the collection was likely to fetch until those items had been identified, but experts have put the figure between 300 and 500 million euros, ($472 million-$787 million).

During the years near the end of his life he and Berge having failed to find a suitable successor to the Yves empire, sold the ready-to-wear company to Gucci, a decision he lived to regrett until his death. And he had little good things to say about the new generations of designers saying "I have nothing in common with this new world of fashion which has been reduced to mere-window dressing".

And to ease his dissapointment, art became his source of comfort and hope.

Antique dealer Alexis Kugel, who told Le Figaro his relation with the collectors was the closest a dealer could have with his clients, said: "For Yves Saint Laurent art was a vital need, indispensable for his inspiration, like water to survive. It soothed his depressive character."

Perhaps in auctioning those arts, Yves could finally make a last contribution of his passion for the art and the artistic,sharing his private fascination with the world.

A befitting for a man whose very name became synonymous with elegance and beauty.

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