July 12, 1998 Paris, Stade de France.
The football world championship final is played between Zinedine Zidane’s France, hostess, and Brazil dragged by Ronaldo.
That match will be remembered for the head double of the number 10 and captain of the French national team, but above all for the first historic victory in a world championship by the bleus with a 3-0 on Brazil. 

But there was another extraordinary and memorable event that day and in that stadium.
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the French fashion house Yves Saint-Laurent, before the start whistle by the Moroccan referee Said Belqola, one of the most impressive, incredible and mesmerizing fashion shows in the history of fashion was held, which gathered 300 looks chosen from all past collections produced by YSL.

For the occasion, the turf of the Stade de France was transformed into a huge catwalk showing a blue sky with white clouds, then embellished in the middle by the bright red logo of the French Maison.
The show lasted only 15 minutes but it was 15 minutes of beauty, grace, poetry but also absolute precision and organization: 300 models (including the future première dame Carla Bruni) representing the 5 continents, 150 dressers, 200 technicians who made up a team of 900 people working behind the scenes.

The exhibition was built around six main themes (including pop art, glamour and oriental influences) each consisting of 50 dresses. The women’s tuxedos, the collections inspired by the colors of Matisse and Picasso and to close, the logo (designed by Adolphe Mouron Cassandre, one of the most influential Art Decò designers of the 20th century) expression of elegance and style.
It took over a year of work coordinated by the director Olivier Massart, for whom Vanity Fair France made a documentary showing the gigantic organizational machine that led to an event seen by 1.7 billion spectators around the world as well as the 80.000 lucky people who were present that day in Saint-Denis.

This masterful fashion show was the bridge that allowed French haute couture to reach the general public through the small screen, which until then had always been kept at arm’s length. In fact, not long afterwards ABC decided to air a two-hour film about the fashion shows of two other French luxury maisons such as Dior and Chanel. 

“The entrance of the eternal feminine in the temple of man”, these are the words of Pierre Bergé, historical companion of Yves Saint-Laurent, that perfectly summarize that magnificent event.