Yves Henri Donat Mathieu Saint Laurent.
August 1, 1936 – June 1, 2008.
Rest in peace.
I can honestly say I shed a tear when I heard this yesterday morning on BBC Breakfast...at their reporting! "Inventor of the blazer, turtleneck and capes" - eh?? Considering they'd had about two years to get that report right, those researchers should be redeployed at very least.
Amazing man! He was the backbone and inspiration for fashion as we know it today!
One of the most political of all fashion designers, his work in the 1960s encouraged and supported social change in France. A designer that understood the relevance of Fashion and Politics and expressed it with such beauty and intellect.
His work and his own image have been a true inspiration for for me.
May he rest in peace.
Political? It is convenient for some to believe this. However, I feel uncomfortable about applauding this self obsessed individual who stockpiled his wealth and acted only for his own interests.
He was great at fashion though. they don't make them like that anymore do they!
Yes rest in peace of mind,Saint Lauren.
Self obsessed,? a lot of creative people are,
Its what he has done for fashion and creativity that is important, we can all find faults with other people.
Yes, I agree with you Chris. It is just Knick Knight's comments on political fashion that bug me somewhat. For people like Knick it benefits them to believe, and to promote, that fashion has a kind of noble purpose when the truth is more the contrary.
But whatever I say I believe that Knick is intelligent enough to think up answers to convince himself otherwise.
Dear Karl,
sorry to hear my comments bug you.
I think in any medium wether it is art or music or film there is some great work and there is some absolute rubbish and the same is true of fashion. In my time working in fashion I have worked with some amazing people who I would say intellectually and artistically are every bit as worthy as their peers in other fields.
My point is that I would like to encourage fashion to engage with some more interesting issues as opposed to trivializing itself. This might indeed be for my own personal satisfaction but I would argue it is for everybodys benefit if fashion communication is set at a higher level.
I hope I can convince you.
Nick.
Yes, I have also worked with people in fashion whose intellectual and technical input, to me, seem akin to that of the ‘high status’ artists I know. I am not trying to put anyone down, or criticise their work. But however much skill, art or intellectualising you bring to fashion, ultimately it is purely about serving FASHION.
It is the nature of fashion that interests me – what it really is about (something that those who are big in fashion are understandably reluctant to address). However we dress up fashion, I believe it still remains the basic, malevolent influence on our culture that it always has been.
Great design and great art do not need fashion, but actually benefit from the lack of it.
I think some of us are too young to feel the affect YSL had on fashion, when he was in his most radical, most of us were not even born. We don't understand the importance in the women's movement by introducing women to pantsuits, the sexiness of putting women in Le Smoking, the Safari jackets, these were really important elements in fashion that changed the way women thought in what's considered appropriate, feminine, and provocative.
