The Temptation of Yves

In an age when bankers love to talk art and artists love to talk money, the line between commerce and creativity is not so much blurred as virtually erased. Take a look at Paris. The city of art museums is now a city of “brand museums”—foundations established to showcase the past and present output of a particular designer label. Louis Vuitton has one. So does the crystalmaker Baccarat and the silversmiths Christofle.

But while those museums display the work of generations of craftsmen, the Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent Foundation, tel: (33-1) 44 31 64 00, is dedicated to the prodigious output of just one brain. With more than 5,000 chronologically ordered items of clothing (dating back to the 1960s and spanning 45 years), plus 15,000 accessories and a vast collection of the master’s drawings and sketches, this 300-sq-m repository offers an experience that’s a cross between window shopping and anthropological study—and it’s all housed in the very building Saint Laurent worked in from 1974 until his retirement in 2002, at the age of 66. Here are the fabled trench coats and safari suits; there are the seminal panther suits, chemise jackets and backless dresses. If your partner refuses to accompany you to Paris’ swanky boutiques, he or she just might be tempted by this cool slice of modern fashion history. And given that none of the items are for sale, it’s going to be a good deal cheaper too.