Montreal’s Fine Art Museum is showcasing an outstanding exhibition yet again with an exceptional homage to the 40-year career and legacy of French haute couture maestro Yves Saint Laurent.

Saint Laurent, who started as Christian Dior’s assistant while studying at the Chambre syndicale de la haute couture, has defined and tremendously influenced fashion is today with his trademark pieces like the tuxedo, the blazer and the safari jacket — y’all know that they’ve become basic components of our daily attire.

“Masterful Pencil Strokes”, “The YSL Revolution”, “The Palette,” Lyrical Sources”: these are the different themes of the show, each of which is a reflection on the evolution of Saint Laurent’s style, which was greatly influenced by the artistic movements in painting, literature and cinema of his time.

After Montreal, this amazing retrospective, presented in collaboration with the Fondation Pierre Bergé Yves Saint Laurent and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, will be exhibited in San Francisco next Fall. On your way out check out “Style” — 249 pages of words and illustration by the master himself and written by Pierre Berge, one of Saint Laurent’s closest friends.

More info here.

txt_ Shawn Lawrence James//ph_Rahan Cotterel

Well-coordinated in her color of creativity, Shyvonne illustrates a picture perfect blend of sass and soul, drawn from her easel of an inspiration called life.

Name: Shyvonne (Ill never tell my middle name) Sanganoo
Better Known As: Shyvonne (E is silent please), or one of the many nicknames people like to give me.
Age: 22 going on 50

Born: In a hospital (Bronx, NY)
Based: I now lay my head to rest for 3hrs/night in Harlem

Fav Brands: Anything colorful with limited visible labelness
Occupation: Cool runnings; My 9am-12am is Marketing with Ciroc at Bad Boy, I also do the PR/Marketing for No1s Done is Right (promoting peace through parties), PR with strong arm media, Freelance with BET for Award shows, and most importantly working on my music is certainly a full time job (even though its not yet paying off my student loans )

Cultural Makeup: A lil bit of my mom mixed with some of my dad First generation American; moms from Trinidad and Dads from St. Lucia with a buncha other stuff in between…

Fun Fact: Shyvonne’s cover of Diddy’s “Last Night” became somewhat of an overnight sensation tallying over 80,000 hits since it’s inception. (“I taped that song in my friend Tommie’s dorm in college and I had to sing close to the computer because it did not have a microphone. It literally picked up every single note, sound, breath, it was soooo loud!”)

What song best describes your outfit?
Hmmm…”Just a Girl” by No doubt meeting “Around the Way Girl” LL Cool J, I think that would explain it; little bit of Ska-Rock-Hip Hop on the stoop in BK.

Where is the most fashionable place you’ve visited?
LONDON TOWN — even the homeless people looked fly!

Do you tie in any fashion influence from your multi cultural make up?
I do not notice that I do intentionally, but here and there a family member will say I look like I’m going to carnival [laughs] — guess being bright is just in my blood. It’s weird though: its my cultural make up, but me and my parents are from completely different worlds. Oh well, everything has an influence if you realize it or not.

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