Yves Saint Laurent's fashion set for UK exhibition

Yves Saint Laurent retired in 2002 after almost 50 years at the top of the fashion business

The first major UK exhibition of the fashion of Yves Saint Laurent is to be staged at the Bowes Museum in County Durham later this year.

Titled Yves Saint Laurent: Style is Eternal, the museum will show key items which revolutionised womenswear during the French designer's 50-year career.

The garments will include his female tuxedo, trouser suit and works inspired by artists like Picasso and Mondrian.

The exhibition will run from 11 July to 25 October.

Saint Laurent designed this short cocktail dress in 1965 in tribute to artist Piet Mondrian

Left & right: Pop art cocktail dresses, 1966. Centre: evening outfit, 1988, tribute to George Braque

Left-right: Pantsuit, 1967; Short evening dress, 1970; Long evening ensemble, 1978

Saint Laurent's former partner Pierre Berge said the Bowes Museum, a French-style chateau in Barnard Castle, was "the perfect setting".

"It is extremely exciting to work on this first exhibition in the UK," he said.

"The Bowes Museum is a natural destination given its exceptional work with fashion and textiles; the museum and its location also clearly reflects Yves Saint Laurent's and my own passion for inspiring, timeless places."

Saint Laurent made his name when Christian Dior picked him to become his assistant at the age of 17. When Dior died three years later, Saint Laurent took over the Dior house.

With Berge, he founded what was to become the multi-million-pound Saint Laurent fashion and perfume empire in 1962. He died in 2008.

The Bowes Museum's fashion curator Joanna Hashagen said the exhibition would create "a dialogue between the designer's body of work and The Bowes Museum's collection".