

Presented in haute couture and adapted for Rive Gauche, the impact of this collection was fast and widespread. It’s the fashion breeze that started at Saint Laurent,” said Vogue, thus igniting a trend of more drama and ornamentation than the prevailing American style had seen in years. “The new turn – the new excitement – in fashion is the new feeling for ornamentation.

Saint Laurent’s was a show of extravagance in rich fabrics and sumptuous colors. Rarely is its effect so immediate, as was the case that July. In most instances, a work’s profound impact is recognized in hindsight. So declared the New York Times in the summer of 1976, following the debut of Yves Saint Laurent’s Russian collection. It is as stunning in its impact as the collection Christian Dior showed in 1947, the one that came to be known as the New Look and affected the way women dressed everywhere. Tom Ford was replaced six years later by the Italian, Stefano Pilati.Īt the request of Pierre Bergé, Hedi Slimane, the designer known for his excellent work at Dior from 2000 to 2007, is the current creative director at the YSL group.PARIS, July 28-Yves Saint Laurent presented a fall couture collection today that will change the course of fashion around the world. The designer Tom Ford took over the artistic direction of the YSL group in 1999, it was then bought by François Pinault of the Gucci group.

The pharmaceutical group, Sanofi, acquired the YSL group in 1993 but not the haute couture part of the business which Yves Saint-Laurent and Pierre Bergé never gave up and which was eventually closed in 2002. Above all he will be remembered for designing the classics of the emancipated woman including the ‘Smoking' tuxedo suit in 1966, the trouser suit in 1967 and the Saharienne in 1968. Yves Saint-Laurent is still famous for his invention of beatnik style, the originality of his inspirations that included the Mondrian collection, a Moroccan inspired collection and a Russian inspired collection. He also surrounded himself with living models who became icons and rejected wooden mannequins. Yves Saint-Laurent was a designer who preferred to please women with clothes adapted to their movements and their new responsibilities rather than dazzle with the extravagance of an egocentric style. His style which can be defined as an homage to tradition linked to a passion for the future, was marked by a very individual use of line and colour which often made reference to contemporary art and the mood of the time. His Trapèze line, created in 1958, had a decisive impact on the world of haute couture and was hailed by the press.Īfter completing his military service in 1962, Yves Saint-Laurent, now supported by Pierre Bergé – a business man who would become his lifelong partner – decided to manage his own couture house. He was then introduced to Christian Dior who employed him on the spot.
Yves saint laurent russian collection series#
In 1954, at the age of just 17, he was spotted by Michel de Burnhof, the director of French Vogue because of a series of sketches in the spirit of the new Dior collection which had not yet been unveiled. Yves Saint Laurent, the French designer born in Algeria, is considered to be the most influential couturier of the second half of the twentieth century.
