As a teenager living in Algeria in the 1940s, Yves Saint Laurent took his first steps toward the fashion runway—not with fabric, but with paper. He created intricately designed and accessorized garments for paper dolls, a couture collection being shown publicly for the first time in the United States as part of Yves Saint Laurent: The Perfection of Style. “I was lucky enough to have all my childhood dreams come true,” he said.
This set of paper dolls foreshadows the unique destiny of the young prodigy who would become one of the greatest couturiers of all time. Saint Laurent cut out silhouettes of famous models, such as Bettina Graziani and Suzy Parker, from fashion magazines and created entire outfits for them made of paper.
His sisters would receive invitations—addressed to “Madame la Baronne” or “Madame la Comtesse”—for these paper fashion shows.
But that wasn’t enough: Young Yves crafted a full runway experience for his sisters, according to the catalogue that accompanies the exhibition Yves Saint Laurent: The Perfection of Style, on view at VMFA through August 27, 2017.
“He prepared programs that featured the names of actual suppliers to the haute couture trade, such as Bianchini-Férier, Abraham, Bucol, Hurel, Staron, and Brossin de Méré, and included bootmaker Perugia, the hairdresser Carita, and makeup by Elizabeth Arden. Michèle and Brigitte would make their selections, place their orders, and record their choices in small notebooks.”
Even as a young man, Saint Laurent was thinking big, imagining a prêt-à-porter collection to accompany the haute couture garments.
In the exhibition, several of the paper doll garments are mounted in a special interactive display case, where visitors can slide the paper doll Suzy behind different outfits to see how they look.