"Pink on the Outside & Black on the Inside"-Yves Saint Laurent

Meocha Belle 7/1

Today I went to the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit for research on my independent study project. I wanted to find out what cultures influenced such major collections, and to analyze all that I saw. And boy did I see a lot! At the beginning of the exhibit, I thought that the Algerian fashion designer's work was greatly crafted and highly conservative. As I advanced, I saw the same things and was somewhat bored with the uniform pieces. This was until I entered what seemed like the cultural collections. In this room, there were only pieces and lines that were representative of various ethnic identities.
Although the pieces were immaculately made and entirely representative of the culture put on display, the way in which the collections were isolated from all the other pieces made me feel uncomfortable as an observer. It seemed as though one step literally took me into another world full of "others" that were on display to be watched. Obviously YSL had nothing to do with the arrangement of this exhibit since it opened this year and he died a couple years back, he could very much so had admired these cultures and been immersed into them. What is clear is that those responsible for designing the set-up, were influenced by the politics of space, whether done consciously or not.
In the room where the African collection was placed, there was a pink and black jacket that translated into American English, "I am Pink on the outside and Black on the inside". If one did not know YSL was Algerian (white African), this message could move from, what I presume to have been his intention of stating that people viewed him as white but he knows in his heart that he is black, to him showing signs of depression, "the color black means it's time to die and nobody questions why" (Janelle Monae).
Ironically, the African collection or "Bambara Art," read in its description as "without prejudices or preconceived ideas," however it was nothing but that. Except for the all black collection that featured all black suites on black mannequins, every other mannequin within the exhibit was white, the mannequins chosen to represent Africa were blue. They were even fully equipped with braided hair weaves, James Cameron is not now, nor has he ever been the Executive Producer of Africans. How could this read as anything but prejudice?

~Paris Noir 2010