Yves Saint Laurent Accessories Foreword — 9 Hand — 15 Neo-romantic — 31 Staging — 49 Impressions of Africa — 67 Gold and corn — 85 Real and fake — 101 Gold buttons — 125 Hearts — 147 Crosses — 169 Hybrid motifs and good luck charms — 197 Doves — 213 Butterflies and feathers — 237 Gardenias and camellias — 261 Ribbons and bows — 285 Shells and coral — 305 Arte Povera — 321 Part and whole — 335 From toe... — 343 ... To head — 350 Wild about accessories — 361
Notes on collections — 370 Autumn – Winter Collection 1976 Autumn – Winter Collection 1979 Autumn – Winter Collection 1988 Throughout his career, however, he retained a certain sense of formality, a faint but enduring vestige of a way of life he had known when he started out: he could not conjure up dresses without imagining the requisite jewellery, gloves and hats to accompany them. In contrast to his clothes designs, he produced very few drawings for these accompanying elements, but his vision of these was none the less precise for all that: this was because he saw them as encapsulating the spirit or mood of an outfit. He was naturally dependent in this area on outside associates and suppliers and craftsmen and women who specialised in particular accessories, each of whom had their own techniques, constraints and particular approaches. He gathered to- gether a clutch of close associates in what was known as “the studio” to form what one might call the ornament chain to translate his thinking step by step and turn these wonderful details into reality: heads of workshops and products, craftsmen and women such as the gold-and silversmith Robert Goosens, paruriers such as Roger Scemama and sometimes artists such as Claude Lalanne. Although he was initially loyal to many of the associates he had worked with at Dior (such as Scema- ma and the shoemaker Roger Vivier), he was quick to broaden the range of people he brought in and set about giving his house its own distinctive stamp. A decisive turning point came in 1976 with the arrival of his friend the mercurial Loulou de la Falaise, who quickly became a close associate. Not only was she an inspiration to Saint Laurent, she was the couturier’s partner in thought, able to interpret his ideas. She shared his taste and even, one could say, his wild imagination. Until the house closed in 2002 it was she who briefed the various craftsmen and women and trade members and ensured that the jewellery, hats, shoes, gloves and scarves they produced accurately matched what Saint Laurent envisioned and so met with his approval. It is this prominent yet poorly known feature of Saint Laurent’s work, this continuous thread which runs through the history of a house which helped shape the course of fashion, that the pages which follow seek to illumine.
» Jet chocker with round crystal and black » rhinestone pendant, red cabochon and Yves Saint Laurent preparing his first Hat on scarf and jet chocker worn with a black drops in pâte de verre (maison collection at 11 rue Jean-Goujon, Paris, formal dress, Spring-summer 1962 haute Scemama), Spring-summer 1962 haute in December 1961 couture collection couture collection
9 14 — Foreword 15
« Straw and snakeskin wide-brimmed hat White pearl and black rhinestone earrings with a bow at the back, gold metal clip-on (maison Scemama), topaz, emerauld and red earrings (maison Goossens), gold metal cuff rhinestone clip-on brooch (maison Scemama) topped with a turquoise resin cabochon Gold metal cuffs topped with a green and gloves worn on cocktail dresses in and assorted ring, worn with the dress resin cabochon studded with rhinestone homage to Piet Mondrian, Fall-Winter “Voulez-vous jouer avec moi” (Do you want or a turquoise resin cabochon (maison 1965 haute couture collection, Vogue US, to play with me), Spring-Summer 1986 haute Goosens); Spring-Summer 1986 haute September 1965 (photographs by Irving Penn) couture collection couture collection
112 — Real and fake 113 Straw wide-brimmed hat with bow, heart necklace and gloves worn on a formal dress; Spring-summer 1962 haute couture collection. The necklace was not selected by the designer for the catwalk show of Sketch of the heart necklace drawn the fashion house. It was probably chosen by Yves Saint Laurent for an article to complement the dress on the occasion by Laurence Benaïm in Vogue France, of a photoshoot for a magazine. November 1990
140 — Hearts 141 Half-sun earrings, sun ring in gold metal, » Sun earrings, brooch and ring (maison both topped with a big crystal stone » Bird-shaped bracelet in gold metal (maison Goossens) worn on an evening gown, (maison Goossens), Fall-Winter 1985 Original sketch for the wedding dress of the Goossens) worn on an evening gown, Spring- Fall-Winter 1985 haute couture collection haute couture collection Spring-summer 1988 haute couture collection Summer 1988 haute couture collection
192 — Hybrid motifs and good luck charms 193 206 — Doves 207 Four pairs of earrings featuring birds: one in rhinestone on silver metal (maison Goossens), one in light and navy blue rhinestone and one in light blue and turquoise Earrings (maison Goossens) and bird-shaped rhinestone (maison Sabbagh), one in blue » » » » brooches (maison Sabbagh) worn on an rhinestone on grey metal and holding a grey Feather hat worn with a dress at Black and brown foal leather fez with black Feather hat worn with a dress at Black and brown foal leather fez with black evening outfit, Spring-Summer 1988 haute pearl (maison Goossens), Spring-Summer 1988 the backstage of the Spring-Summer 1985 and red feathers (maison Yves Saint Laurent), the backstage of the Spring-Summer 1985 and red feathers (maison Yves Saint Laurent), couture collection haute couture collection haute couture catwalk show Fall-Winter 1992 haute couture collection haute couture catwalk show Fall-Winter 1992 haute couture collection
214 — Doves 215 225 264 — Ribbons and bows 265 350 — From toe... Autumn — Winter 1976 haute couture collection
On 29 July 1976, the day after Saint Laurent’s autumn-winter show in the recep- tion rooms of the InterContinental Hotel (which was to be the venue for all his subsequent haute couture shows), the New York Times unhesitatingly hailed it “a revolutionary collection, which is going to change the course of the history of fashion throughout the world”. Yves Saint Laurent, by contrast, described it simply as “a painterly collection (...), a very self-indulgent one at that, because what was on show was not so much a set of dresses as all that I like best in painting.” In it he contrived to conjure up a whole gallery of treasured images, included not just paintings such as Delacroix’s Women of Algiers in their apartment, Ingres’ Turkish bath, Vermeer’s Girl with a pearl earring and “Degas’ dancers in black corsets”, but film too: Visconti’s Middle European Senso and films by Sternberg starring Marlene Dietrich, not least the seminal Scarlet Empress, his fantastical, sensual and extravagant picture of an imaginary Russia. The collection has gone down in history as the “Ballets Russes collection”, but it conjured up a broader vision than this suggests: an imaginary view of the East encompassing everything from Saint Petersburg to Vienna, northern Italy to the Ottoman Empire. Accessories — trapper hats and fur hats, turbans, buckskin boots, broad plaited belts, byzantine-looking jewellery set against black velvet camisoles, quilted gold silk boleros, long coats, baggy dresses made of silk faille or satin, in a whirl of lamés, moirés, brocades and fur — were key: they encapsulated sensual languor, just as surely as the gleaming Oriental pearl hanging from the ear of the Odalisque with slave painted by Ingres back in 1839.
« Headband, book bag in jersey, gloves, worn « with a cocktail outfit, Fall-Winter 1967 Knitted hat, canvas and leather musette, haute couture collectionand red feathers Sketch of an evening outfit accessorised boots, worn with a casual outfit, (maison Yves Saint Laurent), Fall-Winter 1992 with a shawl tied in the back, stole, Fall-Winter 1971 haute couture collection haute couture collection chocker, earrings
394 — Autumn — Winter 1976 haute couture collection 395 Credits
Binding Hardback Format 3 1 246 x 189 mm - 9 /4 x 7 /2 in Extent 432 Number of images 300 col. and b&w illus. Word Count 25,000
ISBN 978 0 7148 7471 5
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Yves Saint Laurent adjusting a head wrap (made by Hamon) backstage at the Autumn/ Winter 1968 Haute Couture show, 30 bis rue Spontini, Paris, July 1968. 36-37 Yves Saint Laurent backstage at the Autumn/Winter 1981 Haute Couture show, InterContinental Hotel, Paris, July 1981 (photograph by Bettina Rheims).
34 — Hand 35
Talitha Getty in a Saint Laurent Rive Yves Saint Laurent in his apartment with Gauche suit, wearing the ‘lips’ necklace his mother, Lucienne, 3 place Vauban, created by Claude Lalanne, 1971, Paris, 1961. Vanity Fair (UK), February 1971.
42 — Neo-romantic 43
Heart-shaped manchette bracelets of cedar, Wooden heart-shaped earrings (made by rosewood or ebony (made by Niagara), Niagara), worn with a suit, Spring/Summer Spring/Summer 1990 Haute Couture 1990 Haute Couture collection. collection.
144 — Hearts 145