Interchange with Art Contained in the Works of Yves Saint Laurent

Abstract

This study deals with the interchange with art that is contained in the works of Yves Saint Laurent, and it is disclosed through his works that modern fashion is part of expressive art while pursuing creative function as a work of art. The study has been performed on the basis of the references, the pictures of his works and interviews posted in domestic and overseas fashion magazines such as Vogue, Fashion News, Mode & Mode, Gap, Collections, etc. Regarding the scope of this study, it specifically deals with works he created from 1958 until 2002, when he announced his last collection. The results of the study show that with respect to Post-Impressionism, his works were greatly affected by van Gogh(who had used colors as active media in depicting his internal mental state) which gave birth to gorgeous and handicraft-like 'Couture-style clothes'. With respects to Fauvism, the works of Matisse also had an impact on Yves Saint Laurent, who added a sense of fauvism in his works through the use of colors, motif, or full reproduction of images from paintings. We see the influence of cubism upon Laurent when we examine his works of 'clothes with artistic value,' which utilized applique, beaded decoration, patchwork, embroidered patterns, relief-like ornaments, etc. using motif or objet much as we see in the works of Picasso and Braque, artists who expressed a new dimension of the formative arts. Laurent's use of neoplasticism, or plainness of painting, demonstrates a new formative art on the three-dimensional human body by using the works of Mondrian, which consist of black lines and primary colors, although generally Laurent's 'neoplastic'works differed from the works of Mondrian by more actively utilizing the lines and colors when designing dress and its ornament. In addition, the paintings and poems of surrealism artists and poets were directly used in the clothes or their images were sometimes borrowed. In order to express respect toward the spirit of surrealism and its artists, the human body motifs such as lips and eyes(which were frequently used by the surrealism artists) were applied to embroidery, printing and beaded decoration. Finally, being inspired by such Pop artists as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Tom Wesselman, Laurent further emphasized the aesthetic value of the popular consumer image in his own work, resulting in the wide recognition of the designs of Yves Saint Laurent as representing the new wave of the Pop Art school.