“Betty Catroux, Yves Saint Laurent – Feminine Singular” exhibition arrives in Shanghai

The Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris’s “Betty Catroux, Yves Saint Laurent – Feminine Singular” exhibition is set to land in Shanghai, the city whose multifaceted heritage and contemporary have always been a cultural inspiration to the house.

Platinum blonde hair, endless silhouettes, Betty Catroux is the archetype of YSL women and it is never an overstatement to say that she has been the strongest representation of fashion house.

It was the 1960s when Yves Saint Laurent started borrowing masculine elements to redefine fashion, slowly and surely cultivating taste for androgynous silhouettes. Betty Catroux and Yves Saint Laurent met in the legendary Parisian nightclub Chez Régine in 1967, and Betty, who was a Chanel muse at that time, caught Yves’s affection in the crowd with her bold and innate elegance.

She epitomises his fashion, his rebellious side, his mystery, and this love affair with his couture house prevails to this day.

To embody the vision of Yves Saint Laurent and drive his legacy of fashion, creative director Anthony Vaccarello naturally turns to Betty Catroux.

“Betty embodies Saint Laurent without a need for long speeches. An allure, a mystery, an almost nefarious aspect, an elusive yet desirable nature, all that underlies the house’s aura and you understand the magnitude of it when you meet Betty,” said Anthony Vaccarello, “She is the living proof that the house is forever timeless and dynamic.” 

Betty Catroux was the star of Anthony Vaccarello's YSL AW 2018 campaign lensed by David Sims, and she was at the front row of the Fall 2019 show where the creative director sent a parade of models in her signature sunglasses and padded shoulder down the runway.