International
Fashion legend takes the bow
By Vaiju Naravane
PARIS, JAN. 7. A historic era in the history of fashion came to an end today with the closing of the Yves Saint Laurent fashion house. The creator of the spencer jacket, trouser suit and Mondrian lines, who dressed some of the richest, most famous and certainly most beautiful women of our times has decided to put away his golden thimble. Mr. Yves Saint Laurent will present his final fashion show in Paris on Jan. 23.
Francois Pinault, who owns Yves Saint Laurent's parent company, Gucci, heaped praise and encomiums on the couturier at a public ceremony today. But inwardly he will be heaving a sigh of relief. The haute couture firm, which had just about 100 clients around the world, was running up annual losses of several million francs.
The YSL label was founded by Mr. Yves Saint Laurent with his friend, lover, mentor and manager, Pierre Berge, in 1961. He was a painfully shy, retiring young man of phenomenal talent, even genius, and Mr. Berge was the right person to nurture it and bring it to fruition. Mr Yves Saint Laurent found inspiration everywhere. In 1968 after the students' revolution in Paris he drew on their ``proletarian and protest clothes'' creating fabulous high fashion gowns and evening wear with the worker's touch. He was also one of the pioneers of what became the feminist revolution in clothes - male style spencer jackets and pant suits which spelt a new modernity and freedom for the Saint Laurent woman.
Mr. Laurent was born in the then French colony of Algeria in 1936. His father owned a string of cinemas and his mother was a local beauty. The young Yves dreamed of becoming a ``prince of the world''. He said: ``I dreamt that my name would be written in letters of gold on the Champs Elysees.'' His dream became a reality with the launching of his perfume Champs- Elysees, named after Paris' most famous avenue.
Mr. Laurent moved to Paris at the age of 17 after getting his high school diploma. The legendary Christian Dior took him under his wing and it was after his sudden death a couple of years later that Mr. Laurent succeeded him as head of the famous couture house of Dior. He was only 21.
When his own label founded in 1968 was sold to Gucci, Mr. Laurent obtained guarantees that there would be no financial control over his decisions. But the house was losing money and relations between him and the owners, Francois Pinault, had been tense and getting tenser. Closure became inevitable.
Mr. Laurent's hallmark has been elegance and simplicity. His own motto of elegance was: a high neck sweater, trousers, a raincoat. That, said Mr. Laurent, said it all.
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