Bernard Herzog’s Yves Saint Laurent and His Models, created in 1968, captures the elegance and creative energy of one of the most transformative periods in twentieth-century fashion.
The composition presents Yves Saint Laurent surrounded by three models, arranged in an intimate, sophisticated interior. Their elongated silhouettes, sculptural poses and striking clothes evoke the visual language of late-1960s fashion photography and illustration. Herzog combines oil painting with collage, introducing graphic and fragmented elements that give the work a distinctly modern character.
The date 1968 gives the painting particular historical resonance. In September of that year, Yves Saint Laurent opened his first American Saint Laurent Rive Gauche boutique on Madison Avenue in New York. The expansion of Rive Gauche — the ready-to-wear concept first introduced in Paris in 1966 — was part of a profound change in fashion, bringing the creativity of couture into a younger, more accessible and increasingly international world.
Saint Laurent was also notable for working with Black models and muses throughout his career, contributing to greater visibility for Black women within European high fashion. Against this cultural background, Herzog’s depiction of the designer alongside his models becomes an evocative image of fashion, modernity and the changing social landscape of the period.
The work is particularly compelling in its combination of fine art and fashion history. Rather than presenting a conventional portrait, Herzog creates a layered social scene: figures, clothing, drawing and collage become part of a single visual narrative reflecting the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the late 1960s.
An original oil and collage on canvas, dated 1968.
