Paris Olympic Events: Yves St Laurent Museum to celebrate Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games with Special Screening of historic fashion show

As part of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the 11 institutions that form the Colline des Arts (located around the Chaillot hill region of Paris) have devised a unique programme focusing on the body in movement, with workshops, seminars, shows and demonstrations scheduled for June 14 - 16 2024, running each day continuously from 11 am to 6 pm.

A rich artistic and cultural programme, free to attend, is planned throughout the weekend to celebrate the extraordinary adventure as Paris is making preparations to host the Games.

Screening of the recording of the July 1998 Yves St Laurent fashion parade at the Stade de France,
will take place June 14 - 16 2024

To mark the occasion, the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris is inviting the public to revisit the Yves Saint Laurent fashion show by screening the recording of the parade that was designed for the World Cup final on 12 July 1998 at the Stade de France. 

To the revisited rhythms of Ravel's ‘Bolero’, 300 models took to the catwalk to celebrate 40 years of the couturier's creations, in a choreography orchestrated by Olivier Massart. Nine hundred people were called on to organise this fifteen-minute event, which will be watched live by 1.7 billion television viewers around the world.

For the 1998 World Cup final, Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé imagined a gigantic and sublime fashion show staged at the Stade de France. To the revisited rhythms of Ravel's "Bolero", three hundred models took to the catwalk to celebrate forty years of the designer's creations, in a choreography skilfully orchestrated by Olivier Massart. Nine hundred people were called on to organise this fifteen-minute event, which will be watched live by 1.7 billion television viewers around the world.

The Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris is currently hosting the exhibition "SHEER: THE DIAPHANOUS CREATIONS OF YVES SAINT LAURENT" until August 25, 2024.

The museum noted that few garments are entirely transparent, as transparency seemingly contradicts the fundamental purpose of clothing: to cover, conceal, or protect the body. 

Fascinated by this paradox and the powerful impact of diaphanous fabrics, Yves Saint Laurent began incorporating materials such as chiffon, lace, and tulle into his designs in the 1960s. Throughout his forty-year career, he frequently revisited the theme of transparency, often combining these delicate materials with embroidered or opaque fabrics. In doing so, he masterfully resolved these contradictions, empowering women to express their bodies with pride and confidence.

Yves Saint Laurent was the first fashion designer to pose nude to promote a perfume, provocatively proclaiming, "I am ready to do anything to sell my brand." Initially deemed scandalous, this image has since become a symbol of Yves Saint Laurent's groundbreaking work.

Images from the Yves St Laurent Museum in Paris.