In the 40 years that Yves Saint Laurent helmed his namesake label, the designer took inspiration from art of all kinds: painting, dance, and poetry among them. But Saint Laurent—a renowned collector and a friend to many artists, including Andy Warhol and Bernard Buffet—was particularly fond of visual media, with fine art references popping up from the 1960s through to his final couture show in 2002.
Saint Laurent referenced a swathe of artistic movements in his work. Perhaps his most famous is his series of Piet Mondrian-inspired dresses, which he sent down his fall 1965 runway. In 1988, he paid homage to a range of artists, from Georges Broque to Vinvent van Gogh, their most recognizable motifs splashed across the bodies of his models. The designer didn’t shy away from any movement: he borrowed Buffet’s severe black geometric lines in his spring 1990 couture collection, and embraced Pierre Bonnard’s colorful Post-Impressionism in 1999. In another instance, he combined his love of art and dance, using Pablo Picasso’s costumes for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes production of Parade to inspire his harlqeuinesque skirts.
Saint Laurent’s successors shared his fondness for art. In 1999, under Alber Elbaz, Mario Sorrenti photographed a campaign inspired by famous paintings; Noot Seear did her best Mona Lisa smile, while Kate Moss flipped the script on Luncheon on the Grass.
This year’s Costume Institute exhibition, “Costume Art,” and the accompanying 2026 Met Gala dress code “Fashion Is Art,” are uniquely concerned with fine art’s intersection with fashion. With Saint Laurent’s current creative director, Anthony Vaccarello, serving as a co-chair of the Host Committee, perhaps he will use the moment to add to his house’s rich artistic history.
Here, see the artists who inspired Yves Saint Laurent.
Piet Mondrian
Composition with red, yellow, and blue, 1921, by Piet Mondrian
Fall 1965.
Photo: Bettmann
Spring 2002 couture.
Photo: Getty Images
Georges Braque
Les Oiseaux, 1952-1953, by Georges Braque (Photo: Getty Images)
Spring 1988 (Photo: Getty Images)
Spring 2002 couture (Photo: Antoine de Parseval/Shoot Digital for Style.com)
Vincent van Gogh
Irises, 1889, by Vincent van Gogh
Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers, 1888, by Vincent Van Gogh
Spring 1988.
Spring 2002 couture. (Photo: Antoine de Parseval/Shoot Digital for Style.com)
Spring 2002 couture. (Photo: Antoine de Parseval/Shoot Digital for Style.com)
Pierre Bonnard
Door Open onto the Garden, 1924, by Pierre Bonnard (Photo: Getty Images)
Spring 2001 couture. (Photo: Getty Images)
Tom Wesselmann
Mouth #2, 1966, by Tom Wesselmann (Photo: Getty Images)
Spring 2002 couture. (Photo: Antoine de Parseval/Shoot Digital for Style.com)
Henri Matisse
The Rumanian Blouse, c. 1940, by Henri Mattisse (Photo: Getty Images)
Fall 1999 couture. (Photo: Getty Images)
Fernand Léger
The Disc, 1918, by Fernand Léger
Photo: Getty Images
Spring 2002 couture.
Photo: Antoine de Parseval/Shoot Digital for Style.com
Pablo Picasso and Sergei Diaghilev
Seated Harlequin, 1923, by Pablo Picasso
Photo: Getty Images
Fall 1979 couture.
Photo: Getty Images
Spring 2002 couture.
Photo: Antoine de Parseval/Shoot Digital for Style.com
Bernard Buffet
Bernard Buffet at an opening in 1966.
Photo: Getty Images
Spring 1990 couture.
Photo: Getty Images
