Quebec designers craft creations inspired by Yves Saint Laurent

Festival Clothing A fashion show months in the making will have anadded poignancy as noted Quebec designers unveil creations inspiredby the works of the late Yves Saint Laurent. A Tribute to Yves Saint Laurent is slated to take place Wednesdayin Montreal on McGill College Avenue as part of the Festival Modeet Design. The fashion show will feature creations inspired by Saint Laurent'sworks made by more than a dozen of the province's top designtalents including Michel Desjardins, Renata Morales and Marie SaintPierre. The legendary designer died Sunday at his Paris home after ayearlong battle with brain cancer. However, the annual festival andthe special tribute show to Saint Laurent, which are open to thepublic, have been in the works for some six months, saidJean-Francois Daviau, co-president of Sensation Mode, organizers ofFestival Mode et Design. The event coincides with the recent opening of a retrospective atthe Montreal Museum of Fine Arts spanning 40 years of SaintLaurent's haute couture creations. The museum will also beexhibiting the works created for the tribute show, Daviau said. "For us that's really important because fashion in Canada, it's notseen enough as a cultural element so that's recognition from theinstitution," he said Monday. "It's a huge step for us, it's reallyimportant. We're really proud of this partnership." Daviau said the decision to honour Saint Laurent's work wasintended to recognize his talents and how his craft and creationscontinue to resonate. "A piece of clothing is not just somebody that says, 'OK, we'regoing to do pants.' There is a thinking behind it, and for us, YvesSaint Laurent was a master of his art in this way," he said. Helmer Joseph, who returned to Montreal four years ago after twodecades of work as a high fashion and theatrical costume designerin Paris, describes his Saint Laurent-inspired evening dressfeaturing a deep decolletage, and bolero with large balloonedsleeves as "very feminine, very elegant and very classic" - traitsalso embodied in the celebrated designer. "Saint Laurent is someone who wanted women to be very femininefirst, not doing fashion to make a show," he said. Christian Chenail created what he described as a "long sexy dressin black with gold trimmings." The designer of the Muse label said he always liked that SaintLaurent kept in mind the things he thought were important andcarried them through in his creations. "(He was) consistent in his way of thinking fashion, and consistentin the work, too, because the work was always high quality and welldone, and nice pieces, in fact."