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Broadbent Gallery | Jean L. Druesedow, Director

For forty years, from 1962-2002, the Yves Saint Laurent label was one of the most coveted labels in haute couture, available to those 25-women in the world with the means to possess garments of the quality it represented. Superb design and hand workmanship characterize French haute couture, the finest or highest form of sewing, and no atelier excelled that of Yves Saint Laurent at 5 Avenue Marceau, 75116 Paris, France.

The majority of the garments in this exhibition are gifts to the Â鶹´«Ã½ Museum from three fashionable women: Aileen Mehle, better known as "Suzy," the New York society columnist; Mrs. William McCormick blair, Jr., a notable hostess of Washington, D.C.; and the late Joanne Toor Cummings, a New York City art patron, collector and philanthropist, the wife of Nathan Cummings, founder of Consolidated Foods Corporation, the maker of Sara Lee products. The Museum is grateful for the generosity of these women.