I’ve a soft spot for fashion films, either documentary or fictional. The September Issue, Desert Flower, Bill Cunningham New York, and now L’Amour Fou by Pierre Thoretton.
“L’Amour Fou” documents Yves Saint Laurent’s shared artworks with Pierre Bergé, through the collection of the pieces during Saint Laurent’s lifetime, the pieces at their Paris, Marrakesh and Normandy properties before the removal, the preparation for shipping and finally, to the heat of the 2008 record-breaking Christie’s auction. The film offers insight to Saint Laurent’s troubled life, not dissimilar to the fates of so many in fashion (as John Galliano recently put into spotlight).
Director Pierre Thoretton, paints a likable, but pitiable, version of the secluded designer. The first clip of Saint Laurent was himself when 21, the newly appointed designer for Christian Dior, as a fragile young man with a surprisingly feminine voice.
The story goes that Yves Saint Laurent was hired on the spot when one of Yves’ sketches was shown to Christian Dior. Dior completed a very similar sketch that very morning which couldn’t have meant that Yves’ had somehow seen it on that day.
After Christian Dior passed away from a massive heart attack on vacation, France’s papers proclaimed haute couture as dead. The world would repeat the same words when Yves Saint Laurent quit from fashion with his last collection in 2002.
Saint Laurent’s first collection for Dior, in spring 1958, was a hit. Newspaper headlines read, ”St. LAURENT HAS SAVED FRANCE, THE GREAT DIOR TRADITION WILL CONTINUE.”
Yves Saint Laurent met Pierre Bergé, his lifelong romantic partner at a dinner party when working under Dior.
However, Saint Laurent’s success at Dior was short lived- he was fired in 1962. Not to worry, Bergé helped found his partner’s eponymous label as the next step.
Magic was in the making.
YSL introduced prêt-à-porter, the first designer ever to create ready-to-wear looks that can be bought straight off the runway without significant changes to the clothes’ fit or size, calling the line “Rive Gauche”- literally “Left Bank”- is the southern portion of Paris from the Seine River.
The fashion legend does not stop there, Saint Laurent was the first designer to use black models on the runway. Pictured below, a young Iman for Rive Gauche.
And who can forget “Le Smoking”?
I blame YSL for fashionizing cigarettes.
As well, Saint Laurent made a dress for me.
Yes there is a dress named after me- ignore the misspelling.
I kid you, the PETA- outcry worthy dress (feathers, feathers and MORE OSTRICH FEATHERS) was worn by Zizi Jeanmaire, a French ballerina/ wife of famed choreographer Roland Petit.
Another thing we can credit YSL for: thick black glasses. In fact, it was the only thing he wore in a famous portrait for the perfume Pour l’Homme in 1971.
And what did Yves say about it?
Sorry to break it to you Marc Jacobs, but you’re not the only one who shed layers to endorse your designed perfumes.
As good things must always come to an end, Yves Saint Laurent closed his couture house in 2002.
(Iman, a lifetime muse of Yves’ is pictured over his right shoulder. Holding Saint Laurent’s left hand is French actress Catherine Denueuve, the first client to YSL.)
His brand still lives on today but only produces ready-to-wear, menswear and resort under Stefano Pilati. Pierre Bergé said in “L’Amour Fou” that Yves Saint Laurent had a perfect timing for his departure from fashion. Saint Laurent was increasingly depressed about the shift away from couture in the ’90′s (think towards today’s fast fashion- Forever 21, anyone?). During his lifetime, he abused substances and suffered numerous nervous breakdowns- the stress of designing two ready-to-wear lines on top of two couture lines. He later pledged to “never touch a drop” again, but the effects of his addictions were visible in his final runway appearance. He had to be supported by hand and his slow shuffling back to the runway entrance was cleverly hidden by a mass of models behind him.
I rate the movie a 4 out of 5 for it’s slowly sweeping tours of Saint Laurent and Bergé’s properties and it’s tasteful selection of photos and videos of Saint Laurent’s past to create a nostalgic mood. The same mood destroyed by choppy, unsettling scene transitions.
