It's OK for intellectual feminists to like fashion

I bought a t-shirt last summer for a lot more money than it was worth. I’ve worn it twice, and it has since been gathering dust, though hopefully not moths, at the bottom of my white t-shirt pile. The official reason is that I ordered it at the end of the summer, and by the time I received it, it was too cold for t-shirts. You could wear it under a jacket, you say? I hear ya.

Truth is, I can’t face wearing this t-shirt, a reminder of a less than sound financial decision. I went through a similar phase when I bought my Yves Saint Laurent Muse, leaving it in its dust bag for weeks. To this day, it spends more time in than out, although I do carry it from time to time for weeks on end.

Of course, logic dictates that having bought an expensive accessory or item of clothing, I should use it as much as possible, to get my money’s worth. I am however concerned by the quality of the t-shirt, having had a few appalling experiences of button losses with the brand I bought it from. I am not sure how many washes it will withstand before the motif starts fading. As I said, not my most sound purchase.

When I bought this t-shirt, I full-well intended to wear it. I had even started assembling outfits in my minds. As such, it should be differentiated from another category littering my wardrobe but hardly ever worn: the concept clothes.

Concept clothes are bought, generally in the sales, because I either think I look hot in them, have been lusting after them all season long or think they would be perfect for a cocktail party or a date, never mind I never go to either.

Maje is the biggest culprit. There’s the life ambition dress (which I bought, eventually, after annoying the whole family over it), a blue draped dress, which I’ve worn once in over a year of owning, mostly to justify buying it and never giving it to the charity shop, a raspberry pink dress with shoulders as big as its V-neck is low, a skirt made of so many layers of fabric I don’t even know how to get into it and my personal favourite, a corseted white lace dress I can’t get in or out of because the process is just too darn complicated.

The concept dress is beautiful but unpractical. Think silk, significant décolletage, easily creased cloth, dry clean a minimum, specialist clean preferred. It’s only useful if your life is all about sitting pretty and being chauffeured from one fabulous party to another. Think Daphne Guinness.

The concept dress isn’t for me. It isn’t even the promise of a life, or the feeling of how much better my life would be if I had places to wear this type of garment to. The concept dress is bought purely for theoretical value. It is about my obsession with building the perfect wardrobe. If you asked me what I am most proud of, my wardrobe would feature in the top five. I have something for every occasion. Except really waterproof rainwear. Which is just fine, since I’m not living in a country where it rains too often.

Posted at 5:20am and tagged with: first person, dream shopping, yves saint laurent,.

February 11th 2012

The Arty ring bandwagon

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After the lipstick effect, the Yves Saint Laurent Arty ring effect: the economic downturn has seen a joint rise in the sales of cosmetics and rings in the £50-£200 price bracket. Both items allow to buy big fashion names for a fraction of the price, both items are part of what John Brady, head of commercial for the John Lewis and Waitrose partnership card describes to The Press Association as “people trying to cheer themselves up by splashing out on small treats”.

The ring is expensive enough to be considered a luxury item, but not so expensive it seems extravagant or breaks the bank. Whereas your lipstick will likely run out within a year, you should still be able to wear your ring decades from now, and can even imagine passing it on to the next generation. A true fashion investment.

The £140 Yves Saint Laurent Arty ring, now available in an array of colours, shapes, materials and even in limited, more expensive editions, started the trend, taping into the brand’s costume jewellery heritage, as designed by Loulou de la Falaise. Net-a-Porter reported selling 800 of the £140 blue number alone last year, an indisputable success despite a 33% price increase over the past three years. Encouraged by these strong sales and the ring adoption by the fashion community, other well-known houses, not necessarily enjoying the same jewellery history, have started commercialising their own rings.

Following the example of the Arty ring, easily recognisable despite its lack of logo, each house plays on its codes for those rings. The Alexander McQueen rings displays his beloved skulls, Marc by Marc Jacobs sells pavé crystal and bow-adorned rings in keeping with his retro cool aesthetics while Chloé’s leather and brass is in line with the house minimalism and SS12 collection, all ensuring the price tag and potential reach of the rings don’t hurt the brand positioning.

Arty ring photo by Flickr user javicurrante

Posted at 7:27pm and tagged with: yves saint laurent, jewellery, net-a-porter, trend,.

February 4th 2012

Book Review: the November Issue

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November book reviews in February, how out of date you might think. This post has been sitting, half-written, in my drafts for the past three months. It wasn’t meant to see the light of day anymore, but the Save our Libraries/National Libraries day decided otherwise. I spent a large part of my childhood in libraries, I even trained as a mini-librarian when I was 12. Even though Amazon has largely replaced book borrowing these days (not my most sound financial decision), I hate the idea of people not having the possibility to go to one. So, in honour of Save our Libraries, here is my November book review. Now go to your closest Library and borrow one of them.

We Need to Talk about Kevin, Lionel Shriver

By far the most disturbing and moving film I saw last year, We Need to Talk about Kevin was first and foremost a thought-provoking book. A few years after her son, Kevin, committed mass-murder by arrow in his high-school, Eva Khatchadourian tries to make sense of it all in letters to her husband. Was it her fault, did she hate him so much from birth that she turned him into a monster? Or was she the only one aware of his true nature from day one, her warnings ignored by society? I left the movie convinced of the latter but the book, forcing you into Eva’s psyche, into her doubts, guilt and feelings while keeping you aware that this is a partisan account of the events wasn’t as black and white. Beyond the nature/nurture debate, Shriver also raises questions about our fascination for killing rampages and our vision and perception of motherhood. Just like the film, the book deserves to be revisited from time to time, if only to see how your own life experience changes the way you perceive Eva.

Read if you’re looking for an all-absorbing novel

Skip if you’re looking for a light read

Au Secours Pardon, Frédéric Beigbeder

Where we meet Octave again. One jail-stay after his 99 Francs antics, he’s moved to Russia to find the perfect girl, a not-too-disguised take on the perfect brand Beidbeder investigated in the previous volume. Au Secours Pardon is too similar to Octave’s prior adventures, suggesting he has neither changed, nor found redemption despite falling in love (with a beautiful, underage Russian girl he tried to pass for Chechen). Beigbeder’s take on Russia and the modeling mafia is clinical, yet, despite his clear and consise writing, his story is more difficult to believe than ever. Like 99 Francs, the novel runs out of steam half way through, the back and forth between Octave’s conversation with a Russian pope and his memories of meeting Lena Doytchevski fatal to any plot attempt. The novel culminates in an open and unexpected ending, leaving the reader with an unhealthy feeling.

Read if you’re desperate to know what happens to Octave after he’s gone to jail, if you want to read a plot as hollow as its characters or if you’re the type of reader who has hope in authors, until the end: from time to time, Beigbeder does come up with genius sentences or emotional side stories, for instance during an evocation of philosopher Gabriel Marcel.

Skip if you’ve already read too much Beigbeder for your own good.

The Beautiful Fall, Alicia Drake

If there was such thing as a fashion classic, this biography of the Paris fashion microcosm in the 1970s and 1980s would be it. Written in 2006 by fashion journalist Alicia Drake, The Beautiful Fall has since become one of the most oft quoted books when it comes to either Yves Saint Laurent or Karl Lagerfeld, its protagonists. Setting aside the accepted Saint Laurent myth of a man martyr to his art, devoured by his twin demons of depression and addiction, Drake did her own research, interviewing Saint Laurent and Lagerfeld friends, foes and contemporaries. The result is Saint Laurent described as the ultimate manipulator playing Pierre Bergé and his entourage like puppets. Drake even questions the veracity of his drug abuse. Her take on Lagerfeld made me see his hyperactivity under a new angle. I knew him aesthete and cultured, I discovered him the perfect heir to Coco Chanel, telling tales about his life, in charge of his own myth through overinformation. Lagerfeld comes out the winner of his unnamed duel with Saint Laurent. He only accessed star status later in life but, despite the lack of a Bergé character in his life, he’s been much more in charge of his own career.

Read if you’re suffering from 1970s nostalgia, Paris homesickness or simply want to know more about the most important fashion houses and designers of the second half of the 20th century

Skip if - No matter how many books you’ve read on Yves Saint Laurent, Lagerfeld or fashion, don’t skip this one.

Blogging your Way to the Front Row, Yuli Ziv

I sometimes dream of leaving my day job and trying a career as a fashion blogger. Judging by Ziv’s advice in Blogging your Way to the Front Row, Fashion Abecedaire, in terms of content, readership numbers and business goal is months away from allowing me to realise that. Even though Ziv’s book will likely be of little help is you’re a seasoned blogger, or have been following the field for a while, it’s a handy summary of common sense advise and personal experience. If nothing else, it was a wake up call for me, reminding me that waiting for readers to come to me is all well, but going out to look for them could be even better. Which is why, two days before Christmas, I was trying to update my HTML code with a Facebook Like button. Which is also why I’ve started using Flickr pictures, one of Ziv’s advises if, like me, photo isn’t one of your skills or why I’ve decided to find someone to build a proper online home for this blog.

Read if: You’re trying to monetise your blog but can’t figure how to or if you need a one-stop book containing all advise on moving your blog to the next level rather than going through hundreds of bookmarks

Skip if: You have a pure conception of blogging. No money, only content.

Images: We need to talk about Kevin promotional photo; Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Flickr user Cabarousse; Debut: Yves Saint Laurent 1962, Flickr user Victorismaelsoto; New York Fashion Week, Flickr user Dan Nguyen @ New York City

Posted at 10:00am and tagged with: blogosphere, book review, karl lagerfeld, yves saint laurent, blogosphere,.

January 17th 2012

Memories of Yves Saint Laurent

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This year, on 29 January 2012, the Yves Saint Laurent brand will celebrate its 50th birthday. Fifty years of dressing women (and men), of launching best-seller licensing deals, of building up Yves Saint Laurent’s legend, Pierre Bergé’s myth, of being scandalous under Tom Ford and quiet under Stefano Pilati.

I fell in love with Yves Saint Laurent after a Paris ELLE cover featuring the designer with Laetitia Casta in that bikini flower wedding dress. Although I haven’t been able to find it anywhere on the world wide web, to the extent I’ve started to think this cover was little more than a composite of my imagination, I’d date it back to his 2002 retrospective.

Despite not owing anything Yves Saint Laurent until last year, the man and the brand have been a recurrent presence in my life and have formed my fashion taste.

I remember queuing at the Petit Palais to see the Yves Saint Laurent retrospective, the amazement of the Visconti room, the surprise of discovering he’d written a cartoon book, the Catherine Deneuve wardrobe and his voice when answering Proust’s questionnaire

I remember my sister’s shock when, sitting on les berges de la Seine, after seeing the Petit Palais retrospective, I told her Yves Saint Laurent had been a drug addict, then leafing through Laurence Benaïm’s biography to read the appropriate extracts

I remember being impressed by the minimalism, cut and modernity of my first real-life Mondrian dress at the Grace Kelly V&A exhibition

I remember seeing the pictures of Saint Laurent being made Grand Officier de la Légion d’Honneur in 2007 and realising there and then he would definitely never design again

I remember being moved to tears when I first heard Laetitia Casta and Catherine Deneuve sing Barbara’s Ma plus belle histoire d’amour at the end of his 2002 haute-couture retrospective. (No, Laetitia can’t sing)

I remember my eighty-year-old neighbour turning up to my birthday in a Pucci dress and Yves Saint Laurent shawl and considering her the height of elegance

I remember loving Anny Duperey’s wardrobe in Stavisky, a white, luxury symphony, and discovering, years later, that Yves Saint Laurent had designed it

I remember hearing about Yves Saint Laurent’s death, on the radio, the morning of my Indian history exam, when I should have been focusing on Macaulay’s reforms and how the British created a caste system

I remember regretting not to be in Paris to queue for the exhibition before the Christie’s auction

I remember being disappointed Pierre Bergé has decided to disperse the collection rather than keeping rue Babylone as a museum and not understanding his decision. I’ve since read in Béatrice Peyrani’s biography that he thought a private museum wouldn’t be sustainable

I remember considering the 1998 advert for the Paris women’s fragrance, with a woman kissing her lover, suspended to a helicopter, at the top of the Eiffel Tower, as the height of romanticism

I remember the 1998 World Cup retrospective, just before the France-Brazil match kicked off. Pure Pierre Bergé marketing genius

I remember little of the Tom Ford years

I remember Stefano Pilati, shy and self-effacing, trying to convince Anna Wintour dark green is a colour in The September Issue

I remember an article on Pilati’s mastership of polka dots in one of the first Paris Vogue I’ve ever read

I remember Anna Dello Russo in Pilati’s strawberry print white dress, with a cherry hat

I remember my first Yves Saint Laurent manifesto, set aside by a passenger on the number 9 bus at the Knightsbridge stop

I remember Kate Moss looking through the Pierre-Bergé Yves Saint Laurent Fondation window, in an advert which has been on the walls of every single room I’ve moved to

I remember thinking the same Kate Moss wasn’t the best person to embody the Parisienne perfume because she was more cool Britannia than Parisian chic. Would Yves have approved?

I remember buying my first vintage Yves Saint Laurent piece, a purple skirt I date to the Van Gogh collection, in the 1980s. I remember nearly buying a red cape with a black fur collar for fashion’s sakes since it suited neither my frame, nor my lifestyle

I remember buying my second Yves Saint Laurent piece, a Muse in a beautiful camel colour in the softest grainy leather

I remember wanting the Arty ring before deciding against it because everyone was buying it. In 2011, Net-a-Porter alone sold 800 blue Arty rings.

I remember opening my wardrobe to make and inventory of all the clothes inspired by the Yves Saint Laurent collections I owe. Smoking, check, safari jacket, check, trench coat, check…

Posted at 7:54pm and tagged with: first person, pierre bergé, ysl, yves saint laurent, tom ford, Stefano Pilati, the september issue,.

December 28th 2011

Classy Film: L’Amour Fou

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L’Amour Fou tells the Yves Saint Laurent myth as narrated by Pierre Bergé and as such should be taken with a pinch of salt. Covering the entire couturier’s career, from his beginnings as the shy assistant to Christian Dior thrown into the limelight to his leaving fashion in a a gesture Bergé calls “lucid, smart and humble”, the documentary climaxes with the 2009 Christie’s auction of the couple’s art collection. Hinting at their personal difficulties and at Saint Laurent’s addictions, Bergé tells the story of their love without highlighting his role in the YSL empire beyond pictures of his short-tempered self at fashion shows and at Saint Laurent’s side.

Cutting from interviews with Bergé to short testimonies with muses Betty Catroux and Loulou de la Falaise, from shoots of the Saint Laurent - Bergé households in Paris, Marrakesh and Normandy to the preparation of the 2009 auction, the documentary offers an overview of Saint Laurent’s career which does little more than brushing the topic. Detached and sketchy, this is a film for the fashion-knowledgeable rather than an introduction to Yves Saint Laurent’s life work.

Much has been written by Yves Saint Laurent biographers about who manipulated whom in the Saint Laurent - Bergé partnership. Alicia Drakes hypothesises Saint Laurent was shy and quiet to manipulative extents whereas Marie Dominique Lelièvre argued Bergé was the one orchestrating the YSL legend. Your opinion on this documentary will be influenced by who you believe.

L’Amour Fou, Directed by Pierre Thoretton; written by Pierre Thoretton and Eve Guillou

Photos from Mongrel Media both copyright Pierre Bergé

Posted at 3:17pm and tagged with: Classy film, yves saint laurent, pierre bergé,.

December 26th 2011

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Tom Ford, 2001

Posted at 8:30am and tagged with: yves saint laurent, gucci, tom ford, Quote on a Monday,.

“

The Gucci woman – you know what she’s after. The Saint Laurent woman – she’s going to torture you a little bit. You might have sex, but she will drip a little hot wax on you first

”

November 21st 2011

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The fashion business is a lot about small boys fantasising about either their mothers or a couple of generations before them and therefore fantasising about a way of life which is already more or less extinct by the time they get to be twenty-one. They are always a little bit in a time warp.

In addition to great style, Loulou de la Falaise held a lucid regard on the fashion world. RIP.

Quote: Loulou de la Falaise quoted in Draker, Alicia The Beautiful Fall (Bloomsbury, 2006) p.101

Picture: 1980: At the Red Ball in Paris, photographed by Bob Colacello

Posted at 8:00am and tagged with: Quote on a Monday, yves saint laurent,.

November 14th 2011

Carine, the Yves Saint Laurent Woman

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Tous les matins, en me regardant dans la glace, je me demande si je suis une femme Yves Saint Laurent.

Every morning, facing the mirror, I wonder: am I an Yves Saint Laurent woman?

Carine Roitfeld, Le Figaro, October 2011 (translation my own)

I believe in the Yves Saint Laurent woman who either has her hands in the pockets of her pantsuit or is holding her lover’s hand. She doesn’t need a bag.

Carine Roitfeld, Der Spiegel, July 2011

Posted at 10:00am and tagged with: Quote on a Monday, Style Icons, carine roitfeld, yves saint laurent, handbag,.

October 10th 2011

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Pierre Bergé quoted in

Laurence Benaïm Yves Saint Laurent Biographie (Le Livre de Poche, 2010) pp.637-8

Translation my own

Posted at 8:22pm and tagged with: Quote on a Monday, yves saint laurent, pierre bergé, art,.

“

Christian Lacroix didn’t wake up haute couture, he woke up those who were asleep. Yves Saint Laurent is leading on everything contemporary, audacious, imaginative. To say that couture is anachronistic is a hollow debate: it’s forgetting couture is a creation, an oeuvre d’art. A haute couture dress is about as rare, as expensive as a masterpiece. Haute couture is here to stay, we have to make do with it. Prints, lithographs are our fragrances. Is painting anachronistic? Is a dress made to be sold? I don’t know. Was Picasso thinking about the price of his painting while making it? Fashion is part of contemporary creativity.

”

July 31st 2011

Book review: July reading list, French edition

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Saint Laurent Mauvais Garçon, Marie-Dominique Lelièvre

Saint Laurent the bad boy. The alcohol-loving, drug-taking, unfaithful, irregular Saint Laurent. In case of doubt on the content of Lelièvre’s biography, here is its very first sentence: “Il ne fut qu’un couturier”. He was a mere designer. For Lelièvre, the Saint Laurent myth is nothing more than marketing orchestrated by Pierre Bergé (who refused to collaborate to this biography and apparently forbid many former Saint Laurent collaborators from doing so). As mentioned in previous articles, many of Lelièvre’s assertions feel like little more than controversy for the sake of it. Contrary to many biographers of “la saintlaurentie”, she isn’t close to her subject, observing it in a cold and systematic manner. If anyone could accuse her of bias, it would be against Saint Laurent, of writing une biographie à charge. Is it better than being so blinded by your subject you’re incapable of criticism?

Le Monde à ses Pieds, Géraldine Maillet

Death by fashion industry at 21. Death by too much fame, too much money, too much coke, too much uncertainty, too much self-doubt and too little love. In the middle of the 2000s, Ruslana Korshunova was the model of the moment, a recognisable face among the Slavic hurricane engulfing catwalks. Former model Géraldine Paillet wrote a scenario-like imagined biography. Initially multiplying view points to only focus on Ruslana’s once she has found success, her narrative is time-marked by restaurants and people and by an acerbic take on the ridiculous side of the fashion industry. We’ll never know why Ruslana killed herself but Paillet suggests it is the consequence of a gigantic misunderstanding: Ruslana wanted to make her already proud mother proud, wanted love from people who already loved her and wanted eternal success in an industry where everything has a best-before date.

Helena Rubinstein La Femme qui Inventa la Beauté, Michèle Fitoussi

We owe her modern beauty. The scientific jargon, the three steps evening routine, the sunscreen and hydrating obsession: all courtesy of one Mrs Rubinstein. Poland-born, Australia-bred, America-famous, Helena Rubinstein built an empire based on an acquaintance’s miracle cream, a huge amount of will and work and an infallible instinct for what women (and men) want. ELLE journalist Michèle Fitoussi wrote a novelised biography full of imagined dialogues where Picasso and Paul Poiret are nothing more than secondary characters.

L’Effet Kiss pas Cool Journal d’une Angoissée de la Vie, Leslie Plée

It’s not easy going through life worried. Leslie Plée suffers from the kind of anxiety which stops you from doing something because you worry it will trigger worries. Rather than allowing this anxiety to spoil her life, she channels it into a cartoon blog. Her blog is so popular it has lead to two books, including L’Effet Kiss pas Cool, full of well-spotted and funny strips on the little moments in life that can become big if you suffer from heightened anxiety. Not bad for someone who used to worry about how her drawings would be received.

Pictures: Saint Laurent from Fashionfreax, Ruslana from The Fashion Spot (ad for Geog Jensen), Helena Rubinstein from The Wall Street Journal, Leslie Plée from Leslie Plée’s blog via Les Gridouillis

Posted at 4:47pm and tagged with: book review, ysl, yves saint laurent, beauty, Helena Rubinstein, model life, blogosphere,.