{"id":283193,"date":"2018-03-08T15:44:33","date_gmt":"2018-03-08T20:44:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.1stdibs.com\/blogs\/the-study\/?p=283193"},"modified":"2021-12-15T07:31:24","modified_gmt":"2021-12-15T12:31:24","slug":"yves-saint-laurent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.1stdibs.com\/blogs\/the-study\/yves-saint-laurent\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Yves Saint Laurent Was the Ultimate Fashion Savant"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
\"Yves<\/a>

Yves Saint-Laurent, France<\/i>, 1964, by Marc Riboud<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Yves Saint Laurent<\/a> was arguably the most famous and celebrated mid-century fashion designer in the world. At 21, he was appointed head designer at Christian Dior<\/a>. In 1961, at the age of 25, he launched his own couture house. His name is a equated with both elegance and innovation. His Le smoking<\/a>, a tuxedo crafted for women, aided in the abolition of dress codes that barred women from wearing pants in public. In 1966, he became one of the first couturiers to launch a ready-to-wear line.<\/p>\n

All About Yves<\/em><\/a> (Laurence King Publishing), written by Paris-based fashion historian Catherine \u00d6rmen, is not just another monograph. As one would expect, the book contains a wealth of images. But it also has removable facsimiles of letters, sketches, paper dolls and contact sheets, giving unusual insight into the mind of the creator. Originally published in French, the book has been translated into English by Andrea Reece.<\/p>\n

Herewith, \u00d6rmen provides a tantalizing peek at some of the treasures inside.<\/p>\n

\n\"YSL


\n\u201cYves Saint Laurent was very young when he cut these dolls from fashion magazines. He designed fashionable paper dresses that could actually have been sewn because they are so realistically rendered. He even thought about real-life providers for the textiles, embroidery, jewels and hats. He was living in Algeria, far away from Paris, but he already knew everything about Parisian couture.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\"Letter\n

This orange envelope contains reproductions of two historic letters. One is from 17-year-old Saint Laurent to Michel de Brunhoff, the editor-in-chief of French Vogue<\/em>. The other is Brunhoff\u2019s reply. As \u00d6rmen explains, \u201cMichel de Brunhoff knew that the young man was gifted, extremely talented. He encouraged him and later opened doors for him. Brunhoff was the one who introduced the young YSL to Christian Dior.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\"YSL\n

\u201cIn France, in the mid-\u201960s, women didn\u2019t dare wear pants in the cities to go to work or to go out at night,\u201d \u00d6rmen says. Saint Laurent changed that. \u201cHe introduced pants at the highest level of the dress code. The tuxedo replaced evening dresses and ball gowns. By wearing a YSL tuxedo with pants, you had the guarantee of elegance and propriety.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\"Yves\n

In this picture, socialite Nan Kempner<\/a> and actress Catherine Deneuve<\/a> applaud Saint Laurent at the end of the Autumn\/Winter 1974 haute couture show. Deneuve and YSL \u201cwere very close friends,\u201d \u00d6rmen says. \u201cThey had the same understanding of women\u2019s condition and the same commitment to liberation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\"YSL\n

\u201cYSL himself designed the bottle and the packaging of Opium. You have in the book a little selection of his sketches. The inspiration comes from China, and so does the collection of Autumn\/Winter 1977. It\u2019s a kind of provocation, and even the perfume itself \u2014 very heady \u2014 is miles away from other perfumes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\"YSL\n

YSL produced his Bougainvill\u00e9es cloaks for his Spring\/Summer 1989 haute couture collection. \u00d6rmen explains that the brightly flowering bougainvill\u00e9es tree grows \u201cin Algeria and in Morocco, where YSL \u2018discovered\u2019 colors. YSL found the brightness of these colors and the strength of color oppositions. He dared to make powerful chromatic combinations: pink and red, orange and red, blue and green, black and navy blue, which was previously considered poor taste.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Shop Yves Saint Laurent<\/h2>\n

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