Petit Palais: Yves St. Laurent

Le Petit Palais, across from the Grand Palais, is also a giant exposition hall and from March 11th to August 29th, it is housing the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit. I’ve been holding out to go because there is always a 2 hour wait to get it. I figured that after a few weeks it would die down, but my boss encouraged me to go as soon as I could before tourism kicked up in Spring. So Danielle and I woke up early on weekday morning at arrived at the Petit Palais at 9:30am! It opened at 10am, but we still waited until 10:30 to be let in. The Parisians keep a close count on how many people are allowed to view an exhibit at a certain time, which makes for long lines but very pleasant view experiences.

The exhibit was nothing short of extraordinary. There were signs and films that explained his life, motivation, and all of the people that he worked with. Then there were the clothes- so many of his designs!! They were all on mannequins and grouped according to style and time period. They included his best designs- along with his worst. They grouped some by countries and cultures that he was inspired by, and some were grouped by art movement! Danielle and I guessed them all!!

They had a room of gowns; extravagant, gorgeous, stunning gowns. All of the mannequins were wearing earrings and jewelry as well.

My favorite room was the Smoking Room, which was actually a wall. It was a black wall, with almost shelves of standing black mannequins wearing his lines of tuxedo inspired designs. Black on black on black. At their feet, there was a light which singed orange like the tip of a cigarette. He called his tuxedo designs “smoking” because of their color and status.

The last room was also magnificent, with three solid colored dresses and dozens of color fabric swatches. The colors were vibrant and inspired by his trip to Morocco.

We very dizzy with luxury when we left, so we headed to Chanel to find the staircase that she used to model on. According to Danielle (and I trust this), the mirrors along the staircase allowed Chanel to walk down in her gown and catch the reflection of everyone’s faces at the bottom of the stairs. She could tell whether a design was good or bad based off their reactions. We had to go to two Chanel stores before we found the staircase, and of course, no photos allowed in Chanel- so we had a fun time feeling fabulous. We even stopped for macarons at Laduree. I got the chocolate passion fruit and caramel and she got chocolate raspberry and chocolate-chocolate. I’m still not in love with macarons, my heart only has room for chocolate, but when macarons are good- they are really good! (But when they are eh or OK, they are quite terrible.) So sadly I’ll be leaving macarons, Yves, and Chanel in Paris sans photos; but I’ll keep my memories and this blog!