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Repertoire n°1: Yves Saint Laurent 1971, The Scandal Collection

Performance by Olivier Saillard, with Paloma Picasso

  • Events, Paris
  • Fri 13 Mar → Sat 14 Mar 2026, 21:00
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Olivier Saillard Le Musée Vivant de la Mode 2026 5
Le Musée Vivant de la Mode © Olivier Saillard Photo © Gabriele Rosati

Location

Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain

2, place du Palais-Royal

75001 Paris

Directions

Price

Full price : 15€ | Reduced price : 10€

At the Yves Saint Laurent fashion show preceding his 1971 Spring/Summer collection, Paloma Picasso appeared wearing an outfit combining a turban and a padded-shoulder jacket, leaving a strong impression on the famous designer.

Inspired by wartime fashion, Yves Saint Laurent then came up with a collection that allowed those generations who had not experienced the Second World War to discover the remnants of an emergency wardrobe invented by women in the 1940s. The designer offered a subtle interpretation of this, unaware that his outrageous collection would cause a scandal before heralding a major turning point in the history of contemporary fashion.  

It is not common practice to take the fashion show—the starting ground for collections and garments in development—to an official and classical repertoire. Nor is it conceivable to recreate a show whose commercial success no longer serves any purpose. 

By asking Paloma Picasso to return to this moment and the inspiration she sparked, Olivier Saillard seeks to comment on the possible resuscitation of a collection through memory, narrative, and clothing, fragments of a fresco that bodies, gestures, and moments have since forgotten. 

Olivier Saillard Spectacle 2026 1

Olivier Saillard

Olivier Saillard is a graduate in art history, former director of the Palais Galliera – Paris Fashion Museum, currently director of the Alaïa Foundation and artistic, image and culture director for the J.M. Weston brand. Since then, alongside his work as a historian, he has pursued a poetic reflection presented in the form of performances, the most notable of which, Impossible Wardrobe with Tilda Swinton, inaugurated a ten-year cycle of collaboration. Similarly, Models never talk with a studio of famous models, established a new form in response to conventional fashion shows.

In 2018, he founded 'Moda Povera', a poetic, performative, and pedagogical clothing creation company based on the transformation of ordinary and modest garments, magnified by haute couture knowledge and techniques.

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