The Magnifique Podcast

Episode 24 - The Man Behind the Icon: Yves Saint Laurent

• Gabrielle Forchee-Gonzalez • Episode 24

Share episode

Yves Saint Laurent redefined women's fashion, pioneering designs that empowered women through self-expression and autonomy. Celebrated for his innovative spirit and ability to merge art with fashion, his legacy continues to influence the industry today.

• Exploration of Yves Saint Laurent's early life and influences 
• Transition from Dior to establishing YSL 
• Significant contributions to women's fashion, including trousers and tuxedo jackets 
• Impact of his work on feminism and fashion accessibility 
• Investigation of his fragrance line and its connection to his fashion work 
• Personal struggles with addiction and their influence on his career 
• Lasting legacy and contemporary relevance of YSL in the fashion world

Support the show

Speaker 1:

Hi divas, and welcome to Magnifique, your favorite fashion designer deep dive podcast. I'm your host, gabrielle, and today we talk about Saint Laurent. But first, how we doing Today is kind of a weird day for me. I've noticed that if I start my day while being like and grabbing my phone immediately, my day is kind of just a wash. And guess what I did this morning? Yup, I got on my phone and I haven't put it down, and this is post TikTok. I've been watching YouTube shorts all day. So we're really dealing with that. Phone addiction is a real thing. I understand. I am trying to have a superiority complex, so step one is addressing it and maybe one day we'll fix it. But for now, I come to you in my oversized One Direction blanket hoodie to discuss staying the round. So welcome, get all cozy. Yes, even you in your car you're driving right now. Go ahead and grab a blanket, warm up a cup of hot chocolate. Come on, guys, let's go on an adventure.

Speaker 1:

So Saint Laurent is a couture powerhouse, someone who revolutionized women's fashion while also influencing women's liberation. His longtime business partner, pierre Pierre Briget, is cited saying Gabrielle Chanel gave women freedom, yves Saint Laurent gave them power. Maybe this is some internalized misogyny that I need to address within myself. But it always does give me pause when a male designer goes immediately to designing women's clothing. My first thought is why? Why do I feel that way? You might be asking that. I've asked myself that and I'm not sure. Perhaps it's due to a lack of knowledge. So I do reserve the right to change my opinion, and I did. I did change my opinion while researching YSL. You can tell that he doesn't love women, but he loves women, and you can see that shine in every piece that he masters up. So I chose this topic because I had long heard about Yves Saint Laurent being a star in the fashion space, a one-of-a-kind designer who pushed the boundaries of fashion, though I still never knew the details or extent of his reach. So I set out on this journey and now I hold the deepest respect for him and his legacy. What a treat it was to learn about such a fashion prodigy.

Speaker 1:

So Yves-Henri Donat Mathieu Saint-Laurent was born on August 1st 1936 in Oran, algeria, to French parents, charles and Lucien André Mathieu Saint-Laurent. Now why is everyone in fashion a Leo? I have been noticing this time and time again. All y'all are born in August. What's going on. Is it the stars, who's to say? Anyway, he grew up in a sister's household by the Mediterranean Sea, with two younger sisters, michelle and Bridget. You know how I feel about sister households. I really resonate with sister households. I resonate with sister people. He loved to create intricate paper dolls for his sisters and into his teen years he enjoyed designing dresses for his mother and sister to don. He comes from a locally affluent family. With the Mathieu Saint-Laurent family arriving in Algeria in the 1870s.

Speaker 1:

Yves Saint-Laurent's great-grandfather, pierre Mathieu de Metz, fled Alsace. So Yves Saint Laurent went to a strict Catholic school where he had some trouble thriving. I too struggled to thrive in Catholic school, however. Mine was just kindergarten. Saint Laurent was not popular in school and was often bullied by his schoolmates for appearing to be a little flamboyant. He was a bit of a nervous child and sick nearly every day, but he found solace in the world of fashion. At home he took refuge in the world where he created all of his drawings and designs, and at the age of 17, he won first place in a contest by the International Wool Secretariat and was invited to attend the award ceremony. His mother then took him to Paris, where she had arranged to meet with Michael de Braunhoff, the éditeur French Vogue.

Speaker 1:

He then moved to Paris where he enrolled at the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture who remembers Haute Couture from last episode, thank you, charles Frederick Wirth where his designs quickly gained notice. Mitchell de Brunhoff, the editor of Vogue, introduced Saint-Laurent to designer Christian Dior. Saint Laurent decided saying Dior fascinated me. I couldn't speak in front of him. He taught me the basis of my art and with Dior's tutelage Saint Laurent's style continued to mature and gain even more notice. Dior hired him as an assistant and later named him the successor of the brand. So he graduated from the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture that is such a long name I feel like I have to rush through it, the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture. He graduated as a star pupil and he re-entered the International Wool Secreté competition again and won, beating out German student Karl Lagerfeld.

Speaker 1:

Dior recognized his talent immediately and Laurent spent his first years at the House of Dior on kind of mundane tasks decorating the studios, designing accessories, designing accessories, decorating for shows. He really did it all. But he was also allowed to submit sketches for the couture collection Each season. Dior gradually accepted more and more sketches from Saint Laurent and some of Dior's collection from this time would contain themes that appear later in Saint Laurent's independent work, such as the smock tops and the safari jackets from Dior's 1957 Libre line. In August 1957, dior met Saint Laurent's mom and chose Saint Laurent to succeed him as designer. Dior then passed away two months later, in October 1957, from a heart attack during his stay in Italy. According to his wishes, saint Laurent became his successor and named artistic director of Haute Couture at just the age of 21.

Speaker 1:

The head designer of the House of Dior, really so. His first spring-summer 58 collection almost certainly saved the enterprise from financial ruins. The collection which was scheduled to present on January 30th, he created over 600 drawings in just 15 days and at 10 am and just 15 days and at 10 am on Thursday, january 30th 1958, eustain Laurent presented his first collection for Christian Dior. An hour later there was a standing ovation for his collection, his masterpiece, and this collection was called the Trapeze Line. It was a variation of Dior's 55A line, but it catapulted him to international stardom. The collection featured a narrow shoulder that flared ever so gently to the hem, just to cover the knee. The press was in a state of euphoria and deemed the little prince of fashion.

Speaker 1:

Between 1958 and 1960, yves Saint Laurent designed six collections for Dior. His second collection for Dior, presented in fall 58, with lowered hemlines by about five inches, and it did not receive the same level of approval, with many even considering it a misstep by the brand. For the Spring 59 collection, mark Bohan was hired to assist Saint Laurent. This collection brought links back to the knee and that was received much better. But then in his third release, there was a press statement that came out that said the figure was lost in favor of style. His last collection for Dior, named Souplet les Gris de Fé, was very dark, featuring purples and grays. There was a crocodile-styled leather jacket paired with a turtleneck, and it made Saint-Laurent seem a bit like a provocative designer. The collection was not unanimously well-received and in 1960, saint-laurent was called back to his home country of Algeria to fight for its independence during the Algerian War. After the disastrous 1958 season, the brand reversed course and asked that the designer be conscripted so that he would be replaced.

Speaker 1:

Saint Laurent was in the military for 20 days before the stress of hazing by fellow soldiers led him to be admitted to a military hospital. I feel that in my soul you will not catch me dead in the military because I won't last 20 days. I might not even last 20 hours, but he had secured an exemption based on health grounds. However, when he went to return to Paris, his job with Dior had disappeared. He received news that he had been fired from Dior and to be replaced by Marc Bohan, his assistant, which exacerbated his conditions and he was transferred to Val-de-grace Military Hospital where he was given large doses of sedatives and psychoactive drugs and subjected to electroshock therapy. His release from the hospital was in November of 1960, and he sued Dior for breach of contract and won reach of contract and won collecting 48,000 pounds Euros.

Speaker 1:

After his time at Dior, he and his partner, industrialist Pierre Bourget, idealized the fashion house Yves Saint Laurent, or YSL, with funds from American millionaire J Mack Robinson cosmetic company Charles of the Ritz. Many Dior staff joined him at his new enterprise and Saint Laurent and Berger were briefly romantically involved but split and remained business partners in 1976. Ysl and Pierre Berger were both present at Dior's funeral. However, they would not meet until a few months later. The debut YSL collection was presented in spring 62, and the cutouts modeled would be popular in fashion for a few years. The second collection for fall, 62,. The house was celebrated as this was his best since his 58-hit trapeze collection for Dior. The collection was ranked with that among Givenchy as the best in Paris.

Speaker 1:

In the 60s, saint Laurent introduced and contributed to fashion trends such as the beatnik look in 62, the pea coat, as well as in 62, thigh-high boots, the women's tuxedo jacket, boots, the women's tuxedo jacket, safari jackets for both men and women. Many of his designs were inspired by women's lives in the socio-political climate of the time, and he was the main designer responsible for making more widely acceptable wearing of pants by women. Laurent brought in new changes to the fashion industry in the 60s and 70s. During the 60s he introduced transparent and sheer tops to his collection in an effort to assert gender equality, kind of like the Free the Knit movement. He was like one of the first to lean into that. Undoubtedly, saint Laurent was the first to completely merge art and fashion and put art on the runway and countless garments that featured existing art pieces in themselves. It was in his 1960s collection who would make up 26 looks inspired by Mondrian's 1920 color compositions. In 1966, it released a collection inspired by pop art. In 66, it released a collection inspired by pop art, rant felt the need to expand his empire in a way that would allow more women to wear his creations. Women should be put on a pedestal, he said, with the world at their feet. He was an active campaigner for social liberation, really supported wifehood, motherhood and career, deeming that women could indeed have it all, including a wardrobe that was both functional and feminine, sexy and fashionable. This helped shape his decision to launch a ready-to-wear line In 1966, yves Saint Laurent continued to innovate.

Speaker 1:

He showed women how to dress wearing heels with their trousers, or trance coats over their evening wear. He also showed women how to really mix it up with feminine creations having a tinge of a masculine twist. With a 66 tuxedo from Saint Laurent, the French designer opened his Pret-a-Porter house, ysl Rive Gauche, in 1967, as he was starting to shift his focus from haute couture to ready-to-wear. If you remember from last episode, pret-a-porter is just ready-to-wear the first French couturier to successfully launch a ready-to-wear line in Paris. It earned immediate success and was distinct from previous conceptions of ready-to-wear, simply thought of as less luxurious versions of haute couture concepts. One of the purposes was to provide a wider range of fashionable styles for a more affordable and cheap price. This is considered one of the first French coutures couturiers to come out with a full Predaporter couture house. The first customer of this line was Catherine Deneve.

Speaker 1:

In the 1970s, ysl was considered the most prominent designer in the world, adapting his designs to modern women's needs, leaning into comfortable and wearable. Adapting his designs to modern women's needs, leaning into comfortable and wearable. It was also around this time that YSL was often seen at clubs in France and New York City and he was known to be both a heavy drinker and a frequent user of snow. And he is credited with initiating, in 1978, the prominent shoulder padded styles that would honestly take over the 80s, following his 78 introduction of the big shoulder pads look. He relied on this restricted set of styles based on largely big shouldered jackets and narrow skirts, and that didn't really vary much in this decade. He lost the former inventiveness and he was one of the last designers to give up shoulder pads. He just would not let them go. He soon after sold the ready-to-wear business to Gucci for some $1 billion in 1999 and shut down the couture house completely when he retired in 2002.

Speaker 1:

Yves Saint Laurent was met with many accomplishments in his life. In 1983, saint Laurent became the first living fashion designer to be honored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art with a solo exhibition. Then, after a disastrous 1987 Predaporter show in New York City, he turned over the Predaporter line to his assistants later selling to Gucci. And in 2001, he was awarded the rank of Commander of the Légion d'honneur by French President Jacques Serac. Again, ysl retired in 2002 and became increasingly reclusive. In 2007, he was awarded again the rank of Grand Officer de la Légion d'Honneur by France President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Speaker 1:

Paul Perret was the first to establish a connection between haute couture and perfume. He created his house signature fragrance in 1921. And Chanel followed closely with releasing number 5, which was a bold yet simple and timeless scent. And then, 1964, ysl followed in the footsteps of these major names and launched Y, his first fragrance. He wanted to be lush and heavy perfume. At just 21, he opened his very own couture house, enabling him to truly express his creative and fashion expertise. So this meant perfume time. In 1964, he created his first fragrance. Why? A collaboration with Jean Amic. It was an olfactory expression of the elegance and luxury of his couture fashion, tailored for the beautiful women he dressed. In its original packaging, the green cyphery juice was housed in a bottle cut to reflect the silhouette of a woman's head and shoulders. The letter Y was placed to represent the neckline on her dress.

Speaker 1:

In 1971, YSL launched his first fragrance for men, port Aume by YSL. It was a comforting and sophisticated scent coupled by modernity and audacity. He created a fragrance for the independent, free-spirited woman who loved to shop at his boutique Riv Gauche. I keep reading Riv Gauche and seeing Give Roche, so that is not fun for me at all. The fragrances were presented in classically feminine bottles, best stored on the dressing table at the home. This was the first fragrance to be launched packaged in a tin can.

Speaker 1:

In 77, ysl wanted to glorify another facet of ysl femininity, sensuality and seductiveness with ysl's Opium, the amber and vanilla, made by perfumers Jean Amique and Jean-Louis Susiak. This audaciously named fragrance sparked immediate controversy. Testers were stolen, posters were ripped down and stores sold out in a matter of hours on the launch date. It was a very polarizing scent, but decades later, opium has never ceased to reinvent itself. Laurent paid tribute to the city that has always loved and supported him, paris, with a quintessential floral fragrance. For the women of YSL, it launches with brilliant top notes of peach and nectarine, with warm hearts of oak moss and cinnamon. 2014 black opium composed by four master perfumers Marie Salamange, natalie Lorson, oliver Cresp and Honorine Blanc, with Eddie Campbell as its face of the designer.

Speaker 1:

Saint Laurent's design sat at the top of the fashion world Blazers and smoking jackets and introduced attire like the peacoat on the runway. Signature pieces also included the sheer blouse and the jumpsuit. I love a jumpsuit, so knowing that, I get to attribute it to YSL fabulous Couldn't love anything more. To be honest, on June 1st 2008, yves Saint Laurent was diagnosed with brain cancer At his residence in Paris. He and Berger had been joined in a same-sex civil union known as Pacte Civil des Solitaires PACS for short in France. His diagnosis was terminal, with only a few weeks left to live, but Berger and the doctor mutually decided that it would be better if he didn't know how long he had left to live.

Speaker 1:

Along with his cancer diagnosis, ysl struggled a lot with drug addiction and mental health issues. He traces this origin back to when he was in his hospital in his hospital era post-war. His body was cremated and his ashes were scattered in Marrakech, morocco, in February 2009. After his death, an auction of 733 items was held by Christie's at the Grand Palais, ranging from paintings by Picasso to ancient Egyptian sculptures. Pierre Bergé opted to sell the collection and took the proceeds to pose a creation for a new foundation for AIDS research. His death was announced by Pierre Berger that he had died at the age of 71. Pierre remembers Saint Laurent fondly. He says Gabrielle Chanel gave women freedom. Yves Saint Laurent gave women power.

Speaker 1:

Alongside Coco Chanel and Christian Dior, saint Laurent was considered a member of the French fashion world's Holy Trinity. Saint Laurent coined styles for women that changed the way they dress in the modern world. His influence can still be seen today, arguably more so than Chanel's and Dior's. Christian Lecroy says that the reason for Saint Laurent's success was his versatility. Chanel, schiaparelli, balenciaga and Dior all did extraordinary things, but worked within a particular style. Ysl is like a combination of all of them. Diana Vreeland, the legendary American fashion magazine editor, dubbed him Pied Piper of fashion. She says whatever he does, women of all ages from all over the world follow. He's so influential.

Speaker 1:

Heidi Slimane, who was named creative director of the brand in 2012, changed the brand's name from Yves Saint Laurent to just Saint Laurent Paris. This rebranding also included the incorporation of an edgy aesthetic, with celebrities like Zoe Kravitz becoming frequent endorsers of the brand. Today, blackpink's Rosé is the biggest brand ambassador. Heidi revived the brand. He also changed Weissel's focus on elegant and avant-garde styles to one that would incorporate more rebellious pieces such as rock and street style, to open up the market for young consumers. Heidi also redesigned the campaign and the brand's website consistently and used his expertise in photography as part of the new brand image. Today, the brand is under the creative direction of Anthony Varcaglio since 2016. He built a solid foundation for its development and is pursuing its evolution to continue enhancing its influence in the market. In 2017, a museum dedicated to YSL's work opened in his former Haute Couture house in Paris.

Speaker 1:

Some of his legacies include nipped in trousers, slinky tuxedos and safari jackets. They still look perfectly modern decades after their shocking debuts. Saint Laurent's style epitomized a certain way of seductive, wealthy and intelligent French women. Again, catherine Deneau was his muse. She frequently sat in the front row at his shows, and this look that YSL went for is still desirable today as it was 40 years ago. His shamelessly sexy clothes dovetailed perfectly with feminism's inception, as did his advent of trousers for a women's daily wardrobe. He was one of the first to use black models, and he also is credited with beginning to democratize the fashion world by shifting the industry's attention from rarefied haute couture to relatively more accessible pret-a-porter. The brand is owned by Kering as part of the Gucci group.

Speaker 1:

Yves Saint Laurent is a luxury brand specializing in both men's and women's ready-to-wear, in addition to handbags. Brand specializing in both men's and women's ready-to-wear, in addition to handbags, shoes, accessories, sunglasses, fragrances and cosmetics. In 1961, ysl has had both financial success and good aesthetics. Saint Laurent has been a second-tier brand for the caring group in the past. However, they did see a spike from the first quarter of 2021 to the first quarter of 2022, where Saint Laurent became the brand with the best revenue performance in the first quarters, with a 43% increase.

Speaker 1:

So what makes Saint Laurent's performance so interesting? What is bringing in this performance? So one of the big things are their ready-to-wear products, their shoes, their leather goods. 70% of the brand's turnover is from leather goods and leather production. Another factor is pricing. The price range for ready-to-wear is $30 to $3,100 and for a handbag it's anywhere from $1,700 to $7,800. So, due to being more accessible, it attracts younger consumers through this handbag pricing strategy. The cheapest bag is priced at about $1,300 USD. And again, the new ambassador, such as Rosé from Blackpink, with the huge fan base of K-pop icons, lead the younger generation to finding new attractions in the brand. Third is the strategic store concepts. Saint Laurent stands out from competing brands thanks to its projection in upscale boutiques and is the most prestigious department shops. Prestigious department shops.

Speaker 1:

Ysl subverted the conservative dressing style using lace smoking suit design so that women could be liberated and free in dressing. In 1966, yves Saint Laurent boldly pioneered an androgynous style, designing the first women's smoking suit. Without Saint Laurent as women, people might not even have the right to wear trance coats. Now the rise of female consciousness, unisex outfits is not just a style trend, but the meaning behind it is also a symbol of women breaking free from the shackles that Coco Chanel also liberated us from with the corsets. Ysl empowers women. Yves-henri Donat, mathieu Saint-Laurent possesses the romantic traits of a creative person. Yves Saint-Laurent distinguished himself by creating modern classics. Ysl changed the way women view clothing. He is a cultural icon, From shoulder pads to spearheading the free, the knit movement. He's a designer worth treasuring and I hope to continue to explore his repertoire.

Speaker 1:

I did save this best for last because I wanted to talk about my most favorite perfume, which is YSL Leib Little Miss Doula Peep and the Leib commercials sold me on this fragrance in 2021. And I've been addicted to this young woman ever since. So I grabbed a couple of stats from Google AI, mainly because I was relying on my own love for this scent to carry me through most of it. But I'm gonna read some stats if you don't mind. The development of Leib began in 2011 and took seven years to complete. It is kind of heartbreaking that YSL himself will never be able to smell this, because I love it so much and it's it's just delicious. The original fragrance's code name was Boyish Lieb has since expanded into five variations, including L'Hive Intense, which was released in 2020.

Speaker 1:

My take on this fragrance is that it is as if Elegance and Conti married each other and had a champagne soiree to celebrate the festivities. I love her so much. I did bring her with me to record this, so I'm just sniffing it as I talk to you. I've had the same bottle since 2021, and she's dwindling quickly, so I'm going to need to buy a new one. I love her. I genuinely love her so much. This is my signature scent. I wear her every day if I'm not trying a new one or if I'm not in the mood to try a different one. She's my tried and true. I would name my firstborn child after her. Well, I'd have to talk to my husband about that first. Actually, I love her. I love her so much. Anyway, that is Yves Saint Laurent. I am just enamored by that man.

Speaker 1:

I hope you enjoyed. I hope you learned something new. I didn't go too much into like the business business part post YSL's death, truly, because it wasn't something I was interested in, but I will provide my links so you can go read about that if that piques your interest. But yes, thank you for listening. I hope you found it somewhat entertaining and please, please, give this show a rating. I'd prefer five stars, but you do what feels true to you and yourself. Go ahead and follow the show, please. Girl, I'm trying to be famous, so, thank you, I'll have my links in the bio if you want to keep up with me. Um, I'm not. I spoke about this in the fashion week pod. I'm not super on social media right now, but I mean that is just bound to change because I'm gonna get bored. I've been microdosing real life lately, and by microdosing I mean trying to stay off my phone but, as mentioned when I started, the pod not doing too well on it. So, yeah, okay, bye, guys, appreciate you.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Gabrielle Forchee-Gonzalez

Host