Who knew Anna Sui did her own Mondrian colorblock shift back in
1984? I certainly didn't -- until I went down to the WWD library last
week to pull film for a story on Yves Saint Laurent's impact on
fashion. I found scores of other surprises, too.
I pulled up a photo from his spring 1979 collection of a model
wearing a harlequin-patterned gown and realized it matched a spring
2008 Viktor & Rolf look to a T. Hats from his fall 2001 collection
rang of the spiraling, Frank Gehry-like toppers at the most recent
Louis Vuitton show in March, and so on. It's amazing just how
far-reaching his influence was, beyond the safari or le smoking looks that have become synonymous with his name.
As someone who's still fairly new to the industry -- let's just say, I'm a child of the Eighties -- my memory bank of YSL moments doesn't go very far and much of what I do know is filtered through the work of other designers. So it was quite an eye-opener to get down and dirty with the company archives. What didn't the guy do? Transparency, beaded tribalwear, even conical busts. (And I always thought Madonna and Jean Paul Gaultier had paved that road.)
As for my favorite discovery that day, while looking at a complicated fringed patchwork coat from Saint Laurent's 2002 couture finale, I noticed the model behind it, walking away from the camera. The phrase "Or Never" was prominently displayed on her backside. Intrigued, I searched for a frontal view. What a nice surprise considering the events going on. The girl was wearing a cartoonishly cute coatdress, covered in hearts, stars and puffy clouds emblazoned with the words, "Love Me Forever."
Yves Saint Laurent dress, 1965
photo courtesy of the Fairchild Archives
photo courtesy of the Fairchild Archives
As someone who's still fairly new to the industry -- let's just say, I'm a child of the Eighties -- my memory bank of YSL moments doesn't go very far and much of what I do know is filtered through the work of other designers. So it was quite an eye-opener to get down and dirty with the company archives. What didn't the guy do? Transparency, beaded tribalwear, even conical busts. (And I always thought Madonna and Jean Paul Gaultier had paved that road.)
As for my favorite discovery that day, while looking at a complicated fringed patchwork coat from Saint Laurent's 2002 couture finale, I noticed the model behind it, walking away from the camera. The phrase "Or Never" was prominently displayed on her backside. Intrigued, I searched for a frontal view. What a nice surprise considering the events going on. The girl was wearing a cartoonishly cute coatdress, covered in hearts, stars and puffy clouds emblazoned with the words, "Love Me Forever."
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