There was one last thing to do before I left Paris on Friday– see the YSL exhibit at the Petit Palais. It was the most massive, most satisfying exhibition of a designer’s work that I have ever seen.

Aside from over four hundred looks, there’s Saint Laurent’s desk, his personal effects, his original sketches for La Villaine Lulu, 14 of Jeanloup Sieff’s portraits from 1971′s scandalous YSL Pour Homme campaign, a rack of dresses made for Catherine Deneuve, a few videos of Saint Laurent both working and speaking, sketces, fabric swatches, a grand staircase topped with couture and an entire wall of Le Smoking variations.

Even Saint Laurent’s most devoted fan’s bound to learn something new, like that his AW92 collection had 50 looks, but for AW84 he created 182, or that all Le Smoking looks are lined in silk because he wanted them to be worn over bare skin, or that there are 236 variations of Le Smoking. Also, he considered his Russian collection to be his greatest achievement, he was talking about the death of couture in the 60s, and before his first collection he designed a giant crystal heart and placed it on his favorite model at every single show.

If I hadn’t had to catch a plane, I could’ve stayed all day. If you can get to Paris before August, it’s a must see.