Yesterday, I was at the TV studios of ‘This Morning,’ to give an interview on the late Yves Saint Laurent. Yes I have been lucky enough to interview him (and if that’s not fashion name dropping I really don’t know what is)!
But in doing some research (I’ve enclosed a wonderful film link and separate article link) I found myself thinking what a truly creative great he was.
Design today has been wonderfully democratised so that everyone can have fashion at an affordable price and from an accessible platform.
When YSL started back in the late fifties for the House of Dior and under the tutelage of the great Christian Dior, no one could have guessed that this shy and humble young man would revolutionise fashion by incorporating his own youthful street-style inspirations. Contributing to a climate along with such luminaries as Mary Quant, he took fashion out of the salons and into the mainstream.
It is because of him that we have ‘ready to wear’ which is the term for mass-produced designer fashion. Before YSL there was only the hugely expensive couture salons and then workaday dressmakers or home made garments. Now anyone can buy a designer article be it clothes, accessories even spectacle frames.
With the exception of Pierre Cardin, his perfumes and cosmetics covered a global market long before anyone else had really understood the idea of lifestyle products and global branding. And in the seventies he used black models, when no one else was interested.
But it was the designs of Yves Saint Laurent that were so remarkable. Before Yves, women did not wear trousers as a fashion item – I dread to think where I would be without mine. In fact androgyny was not the fashion force that it is today.
In popularising the trouser suit, the culottes, the tuxedo jacket, the waistcoat and much more YSL gave us liberation from a dress code that previously had not reflected our desire for equality. He clearly picked up on the politics of the moment, and really did give women the clothing they wanted and needed.
In short Yves Saint Laurent was a legend in his own lifetime, yet he seemed unable to enjoy it.
When I was interviewing the designer for the BBC after one of his shows, he was not relaxed and he was fragile. I found myself on the one hand, loving the moment of standing in front of one of the greatest fashion icons of the day, and on the other feeling very protective. I looked back to see a line of crews waiting to interview him and immediately, wanted to shoo them out of the backstage area so that he could sit down and relax.
About now, I talk about what I was wearing to the studio, so yesterday, I chose a black puffed sleeve pussy bow and black leather pencil skirt. Usually I like to discuss with you why it worked with my body shape because that’s what we do in my blogs from time to time, as you know. But today, I’m not going to.
If it was good enough for a TV Yves Saint Laurent obituary, then it was just plain good enough for me too!
Yves Saint Laurent 1936-2008
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