Homage á Jean Cocteau, jacket
1980 {autumn-winter 1980}
Medium
silk (satin, velvet, thread), lamé, glass, rhinestones, plastic (sequins), metal (thread, fastenings)
Measurements
82.0 cm (centre back) 60.0 cm (sleeve length)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM and Family through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program, 2020
Gallery location
Late 19th & early 20th Century Paintings & Decorative Arts Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
Yves Saint Laurent is one the most influential fashion designers of the twentieth century. He established his eponymous fashion house in 1961, revolutionising how women dressed. In 1980 the designer paid tribute to the poets he admired, embroidering lines from poems by Louis Aragon, Guillaume Apollinaire and Jean Cocteau in sequins on the backs of garments. This jacket features a line from Cocteau’s poem ‘Batterie’, which reads: ‘Soleil moi, je suis noir dedans et rose dehors, fais la metamorphose’ or, in English, ‘Sun, I am black inside and rose outside, which is the metamorphosis’.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
France
Inscription
label, centre back neckline, woven in black on white synthetic fabric: YVES SAINT LAURENT / PARIS
Accession Number
2020.96
Department
International Fashion and Textiles