The Cinema Society hosts the premiere of Yves Saint Laurent

“To be totally honest with you, I didn’t know about fashion and I didn’t really care about fashion,” said Pierre Niney last night at the premiere of the Weinstein Company’s Yves Saint Laurent hosted by the Cinema Society and Yves Saint Laurent Couture Palette.

After playing the title character of the film, however, his outlook understandably changed. “To me it was something kind of superficial, but when I saw the dresses arriving on the set especially the Mondrian dresses, which are in the movie I was touched deeply because I understood all the work and the patience and the craftsmanship that exists behind them.”

Getting to that point wasn’t simply a function of learning the script; Niney took drawing classes so that the shots of him sketching would be genuine (“a big challenge,” he said), and worked with a stylist to learn how to make a dress, how to handle materials, and “how a fashion house runs.” By that account, it seems that the 25-year-old Parisian actor is ready to start a fashion line of his own, should he desire a career change. “Theoretically, I can, but technically, I couldn’t,” said Niney. “[Yves Saint Laurent] has many qualities I don’t have.”

Good qualities and bad, viewers like Karlie Kloss, Monique Péan, and Chelsea Leyland learned last night after watching the movie, which chronicles the designer’s life from Christian Dior’s assistant to jet-set club kid to world renowned clothier. After the screening, guests spilled into the recently opened Beautique lounge, where they drank Qui Tequila cocktails named “Yves” and “Qui Couture.”

It was a far cry from Saint Laurent’s booze and drug-addled world but then again, a lot of things have changed since then. “I tried to tell a little bit about fashion before the fashion that we know now,” explained director Jalil Lespert. “Now haute couture is almost finished, and I would say fashion is for everybody. But I’m sure Yves Saint Laurent would be happy about that.”