The young Yves Saint Laurent sat nervously in a press conference. It was the big day weeks after the death of fashion legend Christian Dior. The initial plan had been to shut down the Dior House, and everyone knew that would shake the financial stability of the whole French fashion industry.
This had left the house’s management to the only option — to appoint a new head designer that could save the label. And no one believed that the mandate would go to the new kid on the block: Saint Laurent, who was only 21 and didn’t even finish his fashion education.
This 1957 event was brought again into life in a recent cinema release “Yves Saint Laurent”, the ‘official’ biopic of the late designer dubbed the prince of fashion. Everyone would not forget that one scene where a journalist strongly asked Saint Laurent with a question: “Do you not feel too young to be heading up the largest Haute Couture fashion house in France?”
Though Saint Laurent admitted he felt anxious, he also said he was happy and proud. “I’m scared of being failed,” said the Algeria-born designer. “But I’ll do my best and to the end. I’ll give you my word on that.”
Dramatic and gloomy — with a splash of tension, the movie directed by Jalil Lespert sheds light on how Saint Laurent’s romantic relationship with millionaire Pierre Bergé inspired his works and influenced his career as they built together the YSL Couture House. It walks us through the bittersweet life of manic-depressive Saint Laurent, who fell for his beautiful supermodel best friend Victoire, yet later found his true love in Bergé, who shouldered him as he plunged into alcohol, drugs and emptiness.
In one scene, Saint Laurent — played by Pierre Niney — traced back to his tortured days as a homosexual in the Muslim country Algeria. It also took the audience back to those days when the extremely timid and nervous designer constantly refused to face journalists and always trembled as he walked down the runway at the end of his shows.
Niney’s job in the movie deserves two thumbs. His physical resemblance to Saint Laurent is doubled with his ability to sketch designs — the new skill he acquired after a training for his role.
He perfectly played the passionate and audacious Saint Laurent, who beat his friend-turned-rival Karl Lagerfeld (now at Chanel and Fendi) in a fashion competition, then amazed former French Vogue chief editor Michel de Brunhoff with his sketches, which bear a strong resemblance to those of Christian Dior — despite the two had never met before.
Brunhoff sent the sketches to Dior who hired Saint Laurent as his assistant right away. It took Saint Laurent only almost two years before he replaced Dior and started his reputation as an avant-garde and anti-conformist designer.
His iconic Trapeze dresses stole the world’s attention and his Le Smoking collection is widely credited as the first ever tuxedo suits made for women in the fashion history.
Saint Laurent’s provocative side as the first designer to use ethnic models is also recounted in the movie, where it shows the designer chose black models and a Maghrebi woman with hijab for his fashion shows. His famous quote, “Chanel freed women, and I empowered them”, rings true in the film.
As the movie especially highlights the designer’s younger days, don’t expect to see his dark moment of beating brain cancer, the disease that sent him to his last breath in 2008. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered around the house and the garden he owned with Bergé in Marrakech, Morocco, the place of inspiration for many of his works.
“Yves Saint Laurent” was unveiled for the French public on January 8. The French-language movie will be screened at the Berlin Film Festival in February and the international release is set for May this year.
The movie received an approval from Bergé, thus said to be an ‘official’ biopic of the designer. Meanwhile, a rivalry production titled “Saint Laurent” is also planned to be released this year with Gaspard Ulliel playing as the designer.
Bergé has threatened to sue the second movie as it highlights the couple’s relationship without his permission. Being the head of the Pierre Bergé-Saint Laurent Foundation, the co-owner of Le Monde newspaper is known to be very protective over Saint Laurent’t reputation.
Click here to watch the Yves Saint Laurent trailer.
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/blogs/yves-saint-laurent-biopic-remembering-the-prince-of-fashion/
This had left the house’s management to the only option — to appoint a new head designer that could save the label. And no one believed that the mandate would go to the new kid on the block: Saint Laurent, who was only 21 and didn’t even finish his fashion education.
This 1957 event was brought again into life in a recent cinema release “Yves Saint Laurent”, the ‘official’ biopic of the late designer dubbed the prince of fashion. Everyone would not forget that one scene where a journalist strongly asked Saint Laurent with a question: “Do you not feel too young to be heading up the largest Haute Couture fashion house in France?”
Though Saint Laurent admitted he felt anxious, he also said he was happy and proud. “I’m scared of being failed,” said the Algeria-born designer. “But I’ll do my best and to the end. I’ll give you my word on that.”
Dramatic and gloomy — with a splash of tension, the movie directed by Jalil Lespert sheds light on how Saint Laurent’s romantic relationship with millionaire Pierre Bergé inspired his works and influenced his career as they built together the YSL Couture House. It walks us through the bittersweet life of manic-depressive Saint Laurent, who fell for his beautiful supermodel best friend Victoire, yet later found his true love in Bergé, who shouldered him as he plunged into alcohol, drugs and emptiness.
In one scene, Saint Laurent — played by Pierre Niney — traced back to his tortured days as a homosexual in the Muslim country Algeria. It also took the audience back to those days when the extremely timid and nervous designer constantly refused to face journalists and always trembled as he walked down the runway at the end of his shows.
Niney’s job in the movie deserves two thumbs. His physical resemblance to Saint Laurent is doubled with his ability to sketch designs — the new skill he acquired after a training for his role.
He perfectly played the passionate and audacious Saint Laurent, who beat his friend-turned-rival Karl Lagerfeld (now at Chanel and Fendi) in a fashion competition, then amazed former French Vogue chief editor Michel de Brunhoff with his sketches, which bear a strong resemblance to those of Christian Dior — despite the two had never met before.
Brunhoff sent the sketches to Dior who hired Saint Laurent as his assistant right away. It took Saint Laurent only almost two years before he replaced Dior and started his reputation as an avant-garde and anti-conformist designer.
His iconic Trapeze dresses stole the world’s attention and his Le Smoking collection is widely credited as the first ever tuxedo suits made for women in the fashion history.
Saint Laurent’s provocative side as the first designer to use ethnic models is also recounted in the movie, where it shows the designer chose black models and a Maghrebi woman with hijab for his fashion shows. His famous quote, “Chanel freed women, and I empowered them”, rings true in the film.
As the movie especially highlights the designer’s younger days, don’t expect to see his dark moment of beating brain cancer, the disease that sent him to his last breath in 2008. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered around the house and the garden he owned with Bergé in Marrakech, Morocco, the place of inspiration for many of his works.
“Yves Saint Laurent” was unveiled for the French public on January 8. The French-language movie will be screened at the Berlin Film Festival in February and the international release is set for May this year.
The movie received an approval from Bergé, thus said to be an ‘official’ biopic of the designer. Meanwhile, a rivalry production titled “Saint Laurent” is also planned to be released this year with Gaspard Ulliel playing as the designer.
Bergé has threatened to sue the second movie as it highlights the couple’s relationship without his permission. Being the head of the Pierre Bergé-Saint Laurent Foundation, the co-owner of Le Monde newspaper is known to be very protective over Saint Laurent’t reputation.
Click here to watch the Yves Saint Laurent trailer.
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/blogs/yves-saint-laurent-biopic-remembering-the-prince-of-fashion/
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