Project funway: 'Yves Saint Laurent' in Montréal

Fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, who died in June after a long and successful career.

Let's get this out of the way first: I am pretty much clueless in the fashion department. I have, after all, procured most of my wardrobe from Target and only recently learned how to tie a proper Windsor knot. That being said, I am an appreciator of fashion, of fashionable people, and, perhaps most of all, of fashion designers (especially those plucky, irreverent ones on Bravo's Project Runway). And after seeing a phenomenal show on the recently deceased designer Yves Saint Laurent at Montréal's Museé des beaux-arts, I'm more in awe of the fashion world than ever.

What struck me about this show (co-organized with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco) was not only the breathtaking talent and unbelievable daring of Saint Laurent, but the overall feel of a rare exhibition whose design lives up to its subject.

The MFA space has been cleverly partitioned to provide a number of compelling shadows and unexpected vistas, including a clever recreation of a Paris runway. You enter the show by mounting the large steps of the museum's original neo-classical building on Rue Sherbrooke. At the top of the steps, underneath a horizontal banner announcing the show's namesake and illuminated from behind with a penetrating pink light, is a kind of one-way mirror. As the sound of a thumping heart pumps out over the sound system, a huge, heart-shaped rhinestone necklace designed by Laurent is momentarily illuminated and obscured in an endless rhythmic flicker. This elegant intro, along with three video screens showing glimpses of Saint Laurent in various stages of his formidable fashion career, sets a kind of mythical tone for the show, the subtitle of which is "Love." And after touring through, it's easy to see why.

When entering the exhibition proper, you are immediately assaulted with some of the most elegant and iconic designs in all of fashion. These mostly black evening gowns and dresses were created by a very young Saint Laurent while he was in the brief employ of Christian Dior, and they instantly evoke another, much more glamorous time and place (not that Montréal itself isn't swimming with glamor). This is the view:

On the wall to the left (out of view) and on the back wall are several of Saint Laurent's free-form sketches, showing his first ideas for designs that would eventually redefine what women were allowed to wear in a society in which they were increasingly gaining power and influence.

You're then swept to a series of platforms containing ever-more bold designs, each seeming to blur the lines between masculine and feminine to the point of utter confusion. Saint Laurent has been praised as the man who brought traditionally male fashion (tuxedoes, pants) into the world of haute couture for women, a trend that has of course left an indelible mark on the way women dress (and thus the way they look, feel, and most importantly, the way they are viewed). This makes Saint Laurent the ultimate fashion-feminist, and may rank as his prime accomplishment in a career that went in seemingly endless directions.

Many of those directions are represented in the exhibition's other rooms, which trace a path through his designs influenced by various parts of the world (some of which he never visited), his forays into color-clashing mashups, and his theatrical designs (including a spectacular dress designed as a tribute to William Shakespeare). Also fascinating were his tributes to various artists, including Picasso, Braque and Mondrian:

In the end, the exhibition is just a glimpse into the brilliant mind of Saint Laurent, who was just as prolific as he was talented. This is not to say that all his designs went over hugely (and there are several in the show that will just make you roll your eyes, like Saint Laurent's appropriations of Russian and African fashion), but taken as a whole, the world in which Saint Laurent lived and for which he designed is completely breathtaking. The show is up through Sept. 28.

--Colin Dabkowski

Photos courtesy Museé des Beaux Arts de Montréal