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"DENVER \u2013 With an impeccable eye and an artistic flair, designer Yves Saint Laurent used fabric, sequins, and feathers like paint and beautiful women such as Catherine Deneuve, Loulou de la Falaise, Betty Catroux, and Princess Grace of Monaco as his canvasses throughout his 40-year career. \u201CFashion is not an art,\u201D said Pierre Berg\u00E9, Yves Saint Laurent co-founder and the designer\u2019s partner in both business and life. \u201CBut fashion needs an artist to exist \u2014 Yves Saint Laurent was an artist \u2014 a great artist.\u201DIndeed, the late Saint Laurent, who died in 2008, was a great artist and one of the most iconic couturiers in fashion. On March 25, the Denver Art Museum will open \u201CYves Saint Laurent: The Retrospective,\u201D following the exhibition\u2019s Paris debut and a stint in Madrid. It is the retrospective\u2019s first and only American stop, showcasing some 200 YSL ensembles \u2014 the largest exhibition of Saint Laurent\u2019s work. \u201CIt\u2019s the most important retrospective ever done of Yves Saint Laurent,\u201D said curator Florence M\u00FCller at the exhibition preview Thursday.\u201CYves Saint Laurent: The Retrospective\u201D isn\u2019t set up chronologically, but rather through important themes. The show opens with the silhouette Saint Laurent created that M\u00FCller said freed women\u2019s bodies: four trapeze dresses from his days at Christian Dior in the late-\u201950s. To the right there is a recreation of Saint Laurent\u2019s trestle table desk at his Paris atelier, where viewers can see photographs of his beloved French bulldog Moujik, fabric swatches on a bulletin board behind his chair, and piles of fashion books and sketches.The next section examines \u201CThe Saint Laurent Gender Revolution\u201D \u2014the designer\u2019s groundbreaking move in the \u201960s to put men\u2019s-style trousers and his legendary \u201Cle smoking\u201D tuxedo jacket on women, who at the time typically wore skirts or dresses. (In France it was unheard of for women to wear pants). \u201CYves Saint Laurent &amp;amp; Women\u201D shows looks worn by important females \u2014 including the delicate black and gold lace dress, gold-embroidered black gazar jacket, and gold headpiece worn by Costume Institute consultant Diana Vreeland at the opening of Saint Laurent\u2019s first museum show, the 1983 Met exhibition.The exhibit includes four more large sections: \u201CImaginary Journeys\u201D travels through Saint Laurent\u2019s culturally-driven collections, reinterpretations of traditional Spanish, Indian, Chinese, and Russian clothes. \u201CA Dialogue With Art\u201D displays his art-inspired creations: the sequined Van Gogh-influenced jackets from the \u201980s, his iconic 1965 Mondrian dress, along with pieces inspired by Braque, Matisse, and more. \u201CThe Iconic Tuxedo\u201D is a nod to his tailored jackets and love for the color black. And \u201CThe Last Ball\u201D places his dramatic evening gowns in one place, on a red-carpeted multi-level platform under crystal chandeliers.Also scattered throughout are vignettes: a section showing Saint Laurent\u2019s relationship to Deneuve through her clothes and the costumes she wore in \u201CBelle du Jour\u201D; a section of a wall introducing \u201CLa Vilaine Lulu\u201D (\u201CThe Naughty Lulu\u201D), the heroine of a comic he published in 1967; another with a series of 1971 black-and-white nude portraits of the designer, shot by Jeanloup Sieff; a hall with walls covered in a rainbow of fabric swatches; a small screening area for documentary films about Saint Laurent; and the show\u2019s finale: a gold heart he placed on the model wearing his favorite outfit for good luck at every runway show.\u201CIt indicates how a very creative mind shaped the way people are looking,\u201D Denver Art Museum director Christoph Heinrich said of the exhibition.The retrospective of Saint Laurent\u2019s tremendous oeuvre is more than just a series of clothes; it\u2019s a look at the creativity of one of the most revolutionary fashion designers of our time and the work of a designer who was also a great artist. Go back in time and see how the silhouettes Saint Laurent conceptualized still impact fashion today.Click on the slide show to see highlights from \u201CYves Saint Laurent: The Retrospective,\u201D on view at the Denver Art Museum through July 8.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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