The Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris is devoting a special exhibition to Betty Catroux, fashion icon and Yves Saint Laurent’s “female double.” The pieces displayed in the exhibition come from a major donation Betty Catroux has made to the Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent.

Madison Cox, president of the Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent, is giving Anthony Vaccarello carte blanche for this exhibition held at the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris. Anthony Vaccarello, artistic director of Saint Laurent, approaches Betty Catroux’s wardrobe from an aesthetic perspective by selecting the pieces that best reveal her unique personality and ongoing influence on the label’s signature style.

"She lives and breathes Saint Laurent. 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." Anthony Vaccarello

Approximately fifty designs show the extent to which Betty Catroux embodied Yves Saint Laurent’s physical ideal and an attitude echoing the “masculine/feminine style” that he was developing when they first met at the nightclub The New Jimmy’s in 1967. Yves Saint Laurent immediately fell in love with her androgynous look, which was radically different from the usual codes of femininity and seductiveness and remains the subject of ongoing fascination.

"She’s perfect in my clothes. Just what I like. Long, long, long." Yves Saint Laurent, Women’s Wear Daily, 1968

"I’ve always been captivated by what’s masculine. Always wore jeans, a man’s jacket… I don’t feel like a girl or a boy, but more in a seductive position when dressed in boy’s clothes." Betty Catroux  Antidote, 2014