Playing with Yves Saint Laurent’s Paper Dolls

There has been a lot of talk in the last few weeks about Yves Saint Laurent as the new film shot by Jalil Lespert and chronicling the life of the couturier from 1957 on, was released this year (note – release dates vary: if you're in the USA you will have to wait till June to watch it).

But if you fancy going back in times and rediscovering the couturier in a childish kind of way, don't look further than the Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent Foundation site. Here you will indeed be able to find a section of paper dolls Yves Saint Laurent created as a teenager.

The designer actually took things pretty seriously: rather than just treating the dolls as an ephemeral game, he actually created an entire fashion house that he named "Yves Mathieu Saint Laurent Haute Couture", that he fictionally but aptly based in Place Vendôme, Paris.

He then proceeded to cut out of his mother's magazines (Vogue, Jardin des Modes and Paris-Match) silhouettes of his favourite models – including Bettina (Simone Micheline Bodin), Suzy Parker and Ivy Nicholson – and made for them wardrobes with day, cocktail and evening dresses.

The Foundation still preserves 11 dolls, nearly 443 garments and 105 accessories dating from 1953 to 1955. The number of garments is proof that Saint Laurent had tremendously clear ideas about his future, but they also show his exquisite taste for details, colours, prints (flower motifs prevail), and, on a strictly technical level, for ample volumes and sharp cuts.

There is also a great variety for what regards the items: you get dresses, but also trousers, tops, jackets and coats. Some of the designs were also given fancy names such as "Magneto", "Lassie" or "Macadam".

One of the most interesting things about the paper dolls project is actually the fact that he even came up with a programme to accompany his paper catwalk shows with a list of suppliers – including textile manufacturers Bianchini, Ferier, Abraham, Bucol, Mayer, Toninelli, furs by Revillon, jewellery by Scemama, shoes by Perugia, gloves by Alexandrine, hairstyles by Carita and makeup by Elizabeth Arden. In a nutshell, he was ready even then to present his collection to journalists, buyers and customers.

There is definitely no way the dolls and their wardrobes may be dismissed as a childhood game as Saint Laurent seemed to have a perfect knowledge of what you needed to be a real fashion designer.

The dolls may still have an educational purpose: they could indeed be used to show young fashion design students the determination and preparation that some of the designers who truly made history had, or they could be employed to unleash the creativity of children and grown ups as well. If you fancy joining the game, browse the paper doll project here and pick your dolls and wardrobes here.