Saint Laurent, Yves.
French designer
A great adaptor, Yves Saint Laurent responds in his designs to history, art, and literature.
Vast ranges of themes are incorporated into his work, from the Ballet Russes to the writings
of Marcel Proust, who inspired his taffeta gowns of 1971;
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the paintings of Picasso to the
minimalist work of Mondrian and the de Stijl movement, shown in the primary colours of his
geometrically blocked wool jersey dresses of 1965.
Saint Laurent has a great love of the theatre. He has designed costumes for many stage
productions during his long career and the theatre is an important source of ideas for
his couture collections. Flamboyant ensembles, such as the Shakespeare wedding dress of
brocade and damask of 1980 and his extravagant series of garments inspired by a romantic
vision of Russian dress, reflect his passion for theatrical costume.
Less successful have been his attempts to engage with counter-cultural movements such
as the 1960 collection based on the bohemian Left Bank look. The criticism levelled by
the press on being confronted with the avant garde on the couture catwalk led to Saint Laurent's
replacement as head designer for Dior, even though his 1958 trapeze line had been an enormous
success and he had been feted as the saviour of Parisian couture. At this time the House of Dior
was responsible for nearly 50 per cent of France's fashion exports, so there was a heavy burden
of financial responsibility on Saint Laurent's shoulders.
The 1960 collection appropriated the Left Bank style with knitted turtlenecks and black leather
jackets, crocodile jackets with mink collars, and a design which was to crop up again and
again in his repertoire the fur jacket with knitted sleeves. In 1968 Saint Laurent produced a
tailored trouser collection reflecting his sympathy with the cause of the student marchers
who had brought the streets of Paris to a standstill. The clothes were black and accessorized
with headbands and Indian fringes. The use of politics as a decorative device hung uneasily
on garments such as the fur duffle coal with gold toggles, giving the designs a paradoxical
quality that was later expressed in such collections as the Rich Fantasy Peasant of 1976, which
helped in internationalizing a sanitized ethnic look.
Where Saint Laurent sets the standards for world fashion is in his feminizing of the basic
shapes of the male wardrobe. Like Chanel before him, lie responded to the subtleties of masculine
tailoring, seeking to provide a similar sort of style for women, and produced a whole series
of elegant day clothes, such as the shirt dress, which became a staple of the sophisticated
woman's wardrobe of the 1970s. Saint Laurent is justly acclaimed for his sharply tailored
suits with skirts or trousers, le smoking (a simple black suit with satin lapels based on
the male tuxedo, which became an alternative to the frothily feminine evening gown), safari
jackets, brass buttoned pea jackets, flying suits in fact many of the chic classics of
post-war women's style.
Saint Laurent's designs contain no rigid shaping or over elaborate cutting but depend
on a perfection of line and a masterful understanding of printed textiles and the use
of luxurious materials. He works with the silk printers Abraham to produce glowing fabricdesigns which incorporate a brilliant palette of clashing colours such as hot pink, violet,
and sapphire blue. A sharp contrast is produced with his simple, practical daywear and
romantic, exotic eveningwear, which is more obviously seductive with its extensive beadwork,
embroidery, satin, and sheer fabrics such as silk chiffon.
Less interested in fashion than in style, Saint Laurent is a classicist, designing elegant,
tasteful, and sophisticated dress, perfectly hand-crafted in the manner of the old couturiers.
He is, however, prepared to use industrial methods to produce his Rive Gauche ready-to-wear
line, created in 1966, and sold in his own franchised chain of boutiques. He acknowledges
in ready-to-wear that mechanically produced garments could never achieve the same standards
of fit and tailoring so must be designed differently a realistic approach which accounts for
the success of the range.
There has been a radical change in the small company founded by Yves Saint Laurent and his
business partner Pierre Berge in 1961. It has become a massive financial conglomerate with
a stock market listing on the Paris Bourse, the result of valuable licensing deals Yves Saint Laurent has negotiated to allow his signature to grace such items as
designer perfume. His is a name that has become a symbol of classic design.
-Caroline Cox
Extract from “Contemporary Fashion”, written by Richard Martin. Detroit: St. James Press, 1995.
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