21 - 27 February 2002
Issue No.574
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 21 - 27 February 2002 Issue No.574 |
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Limelight
"Such sweet sorrow"
He walked slowly into the ornate salon, at 5 Avenue Marceau. The new year was barely a week old. The gilded showroom was packed with TV cameras, microphones, journalists, fashion editors, clients, admirers, associates and friends. He seemed unchanged since he first burst on the scene almost half a century ago. He had the same impeccable somber suit, the full head of brown hair, the familiar thick-rimmed glasses. He wore a strained smile, his voice was hesitant and his hand trembled as he sat under the spotlight and tried to read from a four-page statement. The world was stunned as the very shy, the very private Yves Saint Laurent started his first news conference ever, of his legendary career. "I decided to bid farewell to the world of fashion I so love!" By his side stood his longtime partner and business associate Pierre Bergé. His announcement sent shock waves throughout the fashion world, for Saint Laurent had long ago "surpassed the status of legend, occupying the rarefied platform reserved for icons".
They turned out en masse, January 22nd, to pay tribute to the most influential designer of the century as he held his final collection at the Georges Pampidou Centre. Over 2000 guests, among them his muse Catherine de Neuve, for whom he created the provocative wardrobe for Belle de Jour. Outside, crowds of thousands watched on the giant video screens as the Prince of Fashion bade farewell after 40 years of creating the wardrobe for the modern woman.
The journey began 65 years ago, in the port city of Oran, Algeria. Yves Henri Donat Mathieu Saint Laurent was born to a wealthy French colonial family in 1936. His great, great, grandfather was the lawyer who drew up Napoleon Bonaparte and Josephine's wedding contract. His father had dreamed of sending his son to Paris to study law, but his doting mother, Lucienne, aware of Yves' love for sketching and drawing had arranged a meeting with one of the most powerful figures in fashion, Michel de Brunhoff, editor in chief of Paris Vogue. De Brunhoff was impressed with the youngster's sketches and convinced his father to enroll him at the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture on his graduation from high school. During his first year at the Chambre, in the autumn of 1954, he entered the competition of the International Wool Secretariat Commission, winning 3 of its 7 prizes. He soon became disillusioned by the courses and concentrated more and more on his sketches. He made an appointment with de Brunhoff to show him his new work. De Brunhoff was astounded. That very morning, Christian Dior had privately shown him his new "A" line design for his 1955 Spring/ Summer collection. Yves' sketches looked exactly like Dior's. The collection had not been shown to the public and a young Chambre student could not possibly have known what Dior's design for the next season looked like. De Brunhoff immediately called Dior. "Dior agreed to meet me" recalls Saint Laurent "he looked at my designs and offered me a job".
Saint Laurent became Dior's right hand. When the master died suddenly of a heart attack in 1957, Yves was appointed head of the Dior Couture House. He was only 21. He introduced his revolutionary "Trapeze" line, which was so successful that when he took refuge on a balcony from his adoring fans, hundreds of Parisians were applauding and cheering below. The next day the headlines read: "The King is dead, long live the King". If Dior was King and Chanel Queen, then the Crown Prince was undoubtedly Yves Saint Laurent. It all came to a sudden end with his inevitable induction into the French army. So traumatic was his experience that within a few weeks he had a nervous breakdown and was transferred to a psychiatric hospital. That was the beginning of a life-long battle with mental and emotional illnesses. "I have grappled with anguish and I have been through sheer hell. I have known fear and the terrors of solitude. I have known the fair weathered friends we call tranquilizers and drugs. I have known depression and the confinement of hospitals." Yet despite his years of torment, he was able to create for women a wardrobe that liberated and aided them as they struggled endlessly for equality.
On his release from the hospital in 1961, his friend Pierre Bergé informed him that the house of Dior had hired Marc Bohan to replace him. Yves' ready answer was "then you and I must start our own maison de couture".
Yves St Laurent: Prince of fashion
He dug into men's wardrobe and came up with the cool classic chic style, that many ascertain only Chanel before him could claim. He took Paris by storm with his masculine lines for the female figure. Whether we know it or not, our wardrobes today are filled with the designs of YSL. The practical "pea-coat", the "comfortable safari", the indispensable "pant-suit", the "tuxedo" or "le smoking", in 1966. That same year he opened "Rive Gauche" on the left bank and launched his "prêt-à-porter" or "ready-to- wear" line, the first ever to be associated with a Couture House. In 1969 came the "jumpsuit", 1971 the "see- through blouse" that shocked and delighted the public, 1976 the "Mondrian" dress - the first of many designs inspired by art, followed by the opulence of the "Ballets Russes". The richly beaded Van Gogh irises and sunflowers matched the boom times of the 80s. Always on the cutting edge, "he has had the capacity to know what was right before we did" said his devoted fan Paloma Picasso. He gave us the "bubble skirt", the "turtle neck", the "biker jacket". He put women in "trench coats", "black leather jackets" and always "pants, pants, pants". Those are commonplace now but were revolutionary when he introduced them. The YSL label was sold one year ago for $900 million and retail sales were up an astonishing, 178% in December 2001. "Before him, a woman wearing pants was a scandal, now, what fashionable woman does not own a pantsuit?" said Loulou de la Falaise. Tom Ford, who now designs the popular YSL line put it best: "Yves invented the modern woman's wardrobe forty years ago and it is still valid today".
After 40 years, 80 collections, 8,000 styles, creation after creation and triumph after triumph, the master looked around and found himself alone. The quality of fashion design was declining all around him. "It is not much fun to play a tennis match alone". It was time to say Goodbye. "I am a man of the 20th, not the 21st century". What does a man of the 20th century plan to do in the 21st century? Design for the theatre, which he always adored, or write in the style of Rimbaud or Lautréamont. "I never learned to draw. I would like to take drawing lessons". He would also like to travel; explore Egypt and India, or as his close friend Betty Catroux said with such relief: "at last he will have time to party!"
At the end of his style show he received a standing ovation as he has for every collection he has ever produced. Only a poet's pen could adequately describe the magic moment, the rapturous reception, the fond farewell; the cheers, the tears, the hugs, the kisses, as parting's "sweet sorrow" set in. Yves bade "adieu, adieu, dear friends, adieu, adieu."
And the world continues to cry and clamour, "Adieu Yves", "Goodbye Yves", "Farewell Yves", "Bravo Yves". May I humbly add "Merci Yves"!
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