YVES SAINT LAURENT

March 3, 2005 - October 16, 2005

Broadbent Gallery | Jean L. Druesedow, Director

For 40 years, from 1962 to 2002, the Yves Saint Laurent label was one of the most coveted labels in haute couture, available to those women in the world with the means to possess garments of the quality it represented. Superb design and hand workmanship characterize French haute couture, the finest or highest form of sewing, and no atelier exceeded that of Yves Saint Laurent at 5 Avenue Marceau, 75116 Paris, France.

The majority of the garments in this exhibition are gifts to the Kent State University Museum from three fashionable women: Aileen Mehle, better known as "Suzy," the New York society columnist; Mrs. William McCormick Blair Jr., a notable hostess of Washington, D.C.; and the late Joanne Toor Cummings, a New York City art patron, collector and philanthropist, the wife of Nathan Cummings, founder of Consolidated Foods Corp., the maker of Sara Lee products. The Museum is grateful for the generosity of these women.