Fifty years later, Saint Laurent's genius is still an inspiration

We are in May 1968, Yves Saint-Laurent, 32 years old, is already a world-class couturier. As a students’ revolt is tearing France apart, the stylist wanders in the Parisian streets seeking for fiery inspirations. Turned upside down by the chaos he witnesses, Saint-Laurent withdraws to Marrakech and offers to the world the first fashion collection entirely inspired by the streets’ insurrection. From this brand-new design, the fashion industry saw the emergence of the, now classic, silhouette of the “modern women.” Fifty years later, streets’ attires have invaded the fashion-world and now dictates almost all of the contemporary trends.

Three women wearing the iconic Mondrian dress. 1960.

Soon enough, the popular classes’ closet developed into the primary influence for Saint-Laurent’s creations. He transformed the traditional pieces worn by everyday male workers into fashionable apparels for women: canvas jumpsuits, tuxedos, blouses, safari jackets, and thigh boots reached the pinnacle of Haute Couture. French writer Marguerite Duras claimed that “Saint Laurent’s women emerged from harems, castles, and ghettos also. They run the streets,the subways, the supermarkets, and the Stock Exchange.” In the early sixties he and Pierre Bergé, his conjoint, made the Saint-Laurent’s name an international brand which is now the epitome of French elegance. In the last Autumn-Winter 2018-2019 show, Glen plaid jackets, leather jumpsuits, and embroidered cloaks are still anchored in the DNA of the brand. His creations were such avant-garde state-of-the-art pieces that Saint-Laurent’s impact expanded in almost all luxury fashion houses in the world.

In 1967, when Saint-Laurent bet on the drawing of women’s Haute Couture inspired by men uniforms, French women still weren’t allowed to wear trousers inside the walls of acompany. For them, he dared to design a tuxedo whose picture by Helmet Newton in 1975 stands in the pantheon of fashion photography. The unusual design of the suit made of wide pants and a belted waist swiftly spread across the Atlantic. After the Spring-Summer 1967’s show, Women’s Wear Daily wrote “American women are going to want to burn all the clothes they have when they see this... Saint Laurent’s new Vastsuits in men’s wear fabrics are the sensation of the Paris season...” The women’s tuxedo remains an essential piece of Saint-Laurent’s collection today. Every woman should know that if they can wear classy black tuxedos, it is thanks to the genius and audacity of Yves Saint-Laurent.

Yves Saint Laurent's first Saharienne.

The demands of the social movement of May 1968 revolved around the rights for women to own their bodies and to enfranchised themselves from sexual constraints. For instance, a preeminent request of the movement was for women to be able to host men in their dormitories. Eventually, the protests led to the metamorphosis of women’s status through the acquisition of fundamental rights. In the aftermath of the movement, legislation enforced the duty to pay men and women of the same position equally in 1972, established the right for women to abort in 1975 and passed an amendment qualifying rape as criminal activity in 1980. Yves Saint-Laurent was the first couturier to acknowledge and hand over fashion blessings to the plea of women to act in disobedience to France’s conservative society. Saint-Laurent created in 1968 a woman's jumpsuit which became an emblem of the brand and one of the most influential political statement emerging from the fashion industry. Saint-Laurent grew into the messiah for women desiring to wear modern and provocative outfits which disavowed society’s dogmas. In spring 1968, after the release of his collection, the press was shocked by a long chiffon dress with ostrich feathers exposing a supermodel with bare breasts. Saint-Laurent considered all women “as idols,” whence his creations aim to be worn by the entire female population and not only the Bourgeoises. To this end, he opened in 1966 the Rive-Gauche shop which is the premier ready-to-wear boutique at affordable prices that bears a couturier’s name. From Marrakech, where Saint-Laurent located with Pierre Bergé, they both envisioned a revolutionary collection which would aim to design luxury pieces for working women. In 1972, he declared “The people I detest are the jet-set. My real public is the working woman.”In 1967 Saint-Laurent declared to Vogue magazine, at the end of his Pop art fashionshow: “What I want is to shock, to impel people to reflect.”

Today, we can admire that he has not only pulled it off, he also established a long-lasting legacy of insurgency which rendered fashion an essential component of the rebellious culture. But to what costs? Indeed, we often struggle to comprehend the inspiration of many fashion designers. Between a visual and artistic identity of a brand and an act of provocation only to stand out from the fashion crowd, the frontier is hard to distinguish at a time when every collection is rushed to the public at a lightning pace.

The bang of the arrival of Hedi Slimane, who was YSL Creative director from 2012 to 2016, as a replacement to Phoebe Philo as Creative Director of French house of Haute- Couture Céline in September 2018, landed criticisms for the brand which was accused of plagiarizing past collections of Saint-Laurent. Many fashion designers blamed Hedi Slimane for denaturing the heart and soul of Celine. This example illustrates the constant ambivalence within the fashion industry. Between conservatism and vulgar replications, creators who wish to mark their epoch often struggle to find their own approach to the subversive fashion away from Saint-Laurent’s oscillating identity and sulfurous outfits. Yet, designers often forget that Saint-Laurent’s insubordination erected from a social context and a historical era which diverge from their own.

Half a century ago, Saint-Laurent claimed that his inspiration was “the people surrounding him,” we can wonder if current designers are still concerned about reflecting the state of their societies through their pieces. Even though some stylists such as Karl Lagerfeld for the Chanel House continue to brighten the fashion world and shine by their undeniable elegance, the majority of Haute-Couture houses ceased to “place women, their gestures, their feelings at the center of their imagination,” as Yves Saint-Laurent magnificently theorized for his brand. Finally, one can ponder: has the search for outrage nowadays woefully supplanted the beauty and meaning of creation?

E.R