Two days later, the great designer was dead, at 71 years of age.

The exhibition represents a selection from the thousands of items in the collection of the Fondation Pierre Berge-Yves Saint Laurent. Berge is Saint Laurent's executor.

On my visit, a few days after the death, we tiptoe through the exhibition, mourning the loss of the 20th-century's most celebrated fashion designer, marvelling at his creations, some demure, some more seductive and audacious than anything the current young paparazzi darlings have come up with.

This is a trip down memory lane for an older woman like myself - recalling the new shapes, with no waistline or darts, fabrics that were cut to hang easily and let us move easily inside them. This man was a genius. He understood us and naturally his innovations slipped down the line of the garment business until we ordinary mortals could afford his brilliant conceptions.

Walking past the real thing - the originals of the mock-offs we have worn and loved - brings back powerful memories. His were exciting new concepts, such as doing zippers up our middles instead of over on the left side or struggling with the darned things up our backs; and offering freedom from conforming to how many inches a hem must be from the floor. It is a shock to realize how much we owe to Yves Saint Laurent, the iconoclast who gave us pant suits, trench coats, the safari look, knee-length evening gowns and the "formal short" as far back as 1962.

We mature ladies can recall the angst we felt when his forerunner, Christian Dior, died in 1957. Then the brilliant young Algerian-born assistant formed his own YSL signature and the fashion business was abruptly changed. By January 1961, we were out of the ankle-length mushrooms and into the trapezoid short, with no waistline at all and worn with little white gloves. At each show the YSL designs changed the way we looked and felt about ourselves and the way the world saw us.

In 1965, just four years after he started his own house and still only 29 years old, Saint Laurent paid tribute to the Dutch painter Mondrian, who had died in 1944. The straight-cut short summery dress was born, with rectangles of black, red and yellow, framed in black on a white ground, and the copying frenzy was on. He was one of the first designers to pay homage to a painter's style.

Tributes to other artists followed: Matisse - big scattered leaves on a stunning blue ground; Renoir - white wedding gown of the Belle Epoque but with two black satin bows; Van Gogh - sunflowers and the night sky of Arles in sequins. These creations were works of art, not just clothing.

When Yves Saint Laurent put vibrant colours together that no other couturier had thought of, the whole fashion world responded. New contrasts - turquoise with pink, green with orange, black with blue - you could certainly see us coming.

The pant suit, debuting in 1966 as a formal-wear tuxedo, complete with a black silk cummerbund and black pumps, so startled the Maitre d' of an upscale New York restaurant the first time he saw it that he refused to allow the lady inside. So she shucked her pants and the tuxedo jacket became a mini-dress. The culotte, safari outfits, blazers with Bermuda shorts, the beloved pea jacket were all his introductions.

Yves Saint Laurent: 1936-2008. The Yves Saint Laurent exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts runs to Sept. 28. Located at the Jean-Noel Desmarais Pavilion, 1380 Sherbrooke Street West. Montreal. Call 514-790-1245 or 800-361-4595 or visit mmfa.qc.ca.