FASHION AWARNESS II
YVES SAINT LAURENT
BY: FARZANEH JAHANGARD
YVES SAINT LAURENT BIOGRAGHY: “I learned in my early days at Christian Dior that fashion is not a futile amusement, but a profound and respected profession. “Born in Oran, Algeria, he had early interests in theatre and costume design. Came to Paris in 1954 and won a first prize
in
a
design
competition
sponsored by the wool secretariat (Karl Lagerfeld also won a prize that year. Enrolled in L’Ecole de la chamber Syndical later that year. In 1955 he met Christian Dior and was hired. Learned his craft well and took over the house in 1957 after Dior’s death. His first collection was a great success and included the “Trapeze” silhouette. Later collection proved less popular and his left bank or “Beat” collection in 1960 was almost a disaster. Very ahead of its time, it was wrong for Dior.When he was called up for military service, the house of Dior took advantage of the situation and replaced him with Marc Bohan. He had a nervous breakdown after several weeks in the army (he has always been frail) and spent the next 2 months in an army hospital. Sued the House of Dior and opened his own house in 1962 with his partner /friend, Pierre Berge . His list of contributions and claims to fame is long. He was noted for his impeccable tailoring, expert use of colour. He believed that his success depended on his ability to tune in to the mood of the moment. He interpreted street fashion into high fashion ( pea jacket, biker leathers, military influence), adapted menswear
for women (Ultra-chic “smoking” and tuxedo looks… also beautifully cut trousers that solved the mini/midi question of the late 1960’s for many women). His love of art and artists and their influence on his work is legendary and his “ Mondrian “ dress of 1965 is probably the most copied dress in history. Matisse, Picasso and ,in 1988, Bonard , were also been major influences. He created deluxe peasant/ gypsy looks, see through blouses and always beautiful elegant clothes. He invented his own classics and subtly modified them from season to season. His “Rive Gauche” boutiques were established in 1966. He was the first house to create both couture and ready-to- wear. A menswear division was started was started in 1974. His initials can be found on endless products including cosmetics and perfumes… Opium ,Rive Gauche ,Paris , Baby Doll , Nu. He was honoured in 1983 with a 25 year retrospective of his work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City … the first living designer to be so honoured. This retrospective was later moved to the costume wing of the Louvre in Paris. As of 2001, Yves st. Laurent appeared on French coins and stamps and the YSL archives were housed in a new museum. High strung, emotional and intense, Yves saint Laurent was called the “ King of Fashion “ for many years. This position was a little shakey throughout the late 1980’s due to the opening of the Christian Lacroix Couture House , the popularity of Karl Lagerfeld and the negative publicity surrounding couture in general ( boring, dead ,etc.) . However , by the early 90’s he had returned to his rightful place in the eyes of the fashion press and created many rave collections. In 1998, YSL’S 40th anniversary in design was celebrated with a new fragrance ( In love Again) and the announcement that Alber Elbaz would create the ready-to-wear ( Rive Gauche).
In 1999 Tom Ford replaced Elbaz ( whose last show was Fall and winter 2000). The ready-to-wear (Rive Gauche) was controlled by Gucci Group with Tom Ford as designer from then until 2004. For his first collection –S/S 2001- Ford chose to work entirely in black and white. Subsequent collection were successful and beautiful until his last for A/W 2004. In January 2002, Yves (a CFDA lifetime Achievement Award recipient in 1999) announced the closure of his couture house. His last show (a true extravaganza), was a career retrospective. YSL Rive Gauche (the-ready-to-wear) is still controlled by Gucci Group. Stefano Pilati was hired in 2004… after endless speculation over who would get the job… and left the firm in March 2012. Hedi Slimane is the new designer. Yves retired to his homeland, involved in several major projects including a museum of his work. He passed away in Paris on June 1,2008 after a long battle with cancer. He remains a legend.
INSPIRATION
LE SMOKING BY YSL
YSL-1966
YSL- LONDON, MAY 4,1979
YSL-2002
SHEERNESS BY YSL
YSL-1965
YSL-1968
YSL-1999
ETHNICITY BY YSL
ETHNICITY “SPAIN”- YSL 1967
ETHNICITY- ROMANIA YSL-1981
ETHNICITY-AFRICA YSL 1967
ARTS BY YSL
ARTS-MONDRIAN YSL 1965
ARTS-MATISSE YSL 1981
ARTS- VAN GOGH-YSL 1988
BOLD CLOURS BY YSL
BOLD COLOURS YSL 1966
BOLD COLOURS, ORANGE CAPE- YSL 1983
BOLD COLOURS YSL ,1988
THE LEGACY ALBER ELBAZ I TOM FORD I STEFANO PILATY
YVES SAINT LAUREN TODAY …………TODAY
In the 1998–1999 seasons, Alber Elbaz, formerly of Lanvin, designed three ready-
.
to-wear collections In 1999, Gucci (owned by PPR) bought the YSL brand fired ELBAZ and asked Tom Ford to design the ready-to-wear collection, while Saint Laurent would design the haute couture collection. In 2002, dogged by years of poor health, drug abuse, depression, alcoholism, and criticisms of YSL designs, Saint Laurent closed the couture house of YSL. Reflecting on his career and impact on the fashion industry, Saint Laurent was heavily quoted around the world for stating, "Chanel freed women, and I empowered them." Saint Laurent also stated, "I created the contemporary woman's wardrobe. After Tom Ford left in 2004, The prêt-à-porter line was produced under the direction of Stefano Pilati . His style was decidedly more French than the overtly sexy image that Tom Ford propagated. After 8 years of direction, Stefano pilati was dismissed from his position at the house in February 2012 and it was announced that Hedi Slimane would act as the new creative head. In 2015, Slimane announced that he would be reviving Yves Saint Laurent's couture line. In 2016, Slimane left Saint Laurent. His replacement is Anthony Vaccarello.
ALBER ELBAZ
Alber Elbaz (Hebrew: אלבז
אלבר, born 6 February 1961) is an Israeli
fashion designer. After positions at a number of other fashion houses, he was the creative director of Lanvin in Paris from 2001 until 2015. Elbaz was born in Casablanca, Morocco, to a Moroccan Jewish family. Elbaz's father was a hairdresser, and his mother was a painter. He immigrated to Israel with his family at the age of ten and grew up in Holon. His mother became a cashier to support her four children after her husband died. Elbaz later served as a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, and subsequently he studied at the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design in Ramat Gan. His mother encouraged Elbaz - who started drawing dresses at the age of seven - and gave him $800 when he left home, in 1985, to go to New York City and pursue a career in fashion. There he was trained during seven years with Geoffrey Beene.
Fashion career, From 1996 until 1998, Elbaz worked for the French house of Guy Laroche. Appointed by Pierre Bergé, Elbaz worked as creative director of Yves Saint Laurent from 1998 until he was fired after three seasons when Gucci bought the company. Elbaz began designing for Lanvin in 2001. He also held a minority stake in the company of nearly 18 percent. During his 14-year tenure, he was credited with reviving the French couture house’s fortunes, with modern takes on silk cocktail dresses and colourful, feminine designs. He also created a trend for luxury brand jewellery by launching fabric-covered pearls. His humorous sketches of everything from lollipops to his own face became a brand signature. While at Lanvin, Elbaz also collaborated with Acne Studios on a denim collection at the end of 2008. In 2010, he led Lanvin’s work on an H&M line, including tulle dresses and bejewelled necklaces. Notably, for his fall 2012 campaign (which coincided with the house’s 10th anniversary), Elbaz chose real people to feature in Lanvin’s advertising campaign; among the models were an 18-year-old musician and an 82-year-old retiree. In 2015, he curated “Alber Elbaz/Lanvin: Manifeste,” a photography exhibition at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP) in Paris, comprising more than 350 pictures taken during his tenure alongside sketches and design mock-ups. In 2006, Elbaz introduced new packaging for Lanvin, featuring a light forget-me-not blue color, a favourite shade
which Lanvin purportedly had seen in a Fra Angelico fresco. Packaging included shopping bags imprinted with Paul Iribe's 1907 illustration of Lanvin and her daughter Marguerite, and shoe boxes designed like antique library files, tied with black ribbons to emphasize the precious nature of the product. Elbaz illustrated the song "Lady Jane" in singer-songwriter Mika's extended play Songs for Sorrow. In 2012, Rizzoli published a book of 3,000 photographs documenting Elbaz's work for Lanvin. In October 2015, Elbaz announced that he had been let go from the fashion house after disagreements with the company's major shareholder, ShawLan Wang. Elbaz also complained about the lack of strategy and targeted investment of the company. Shortly before he was fired, Elbaz had hired Chemena Kamali from Chloé as women’s design director. Lanvin sales slumped following his departure in 2015 and the brand was eventually bought by China’s Fosun. After leaving Lanvin, Elbaz designed all of the costumes Natalie Portman wore in the 2016 film A Tale of Love and Darkness which she also wrote and directed. He has since worked with various luxury brands, including Converse and LeSportsac. In 2016, he created a perfume called Superstitious for the French perfume house Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle. He later collaborated with Italian shoemaker Tod's on some loafer and bag designs in 2019. Also in 2019, he joined forces with Richemont on launching AZfashion, a brand that is to focus on “developing solutions for women of our times”.
LE SMOKING BY ALBER ELBAZ – YSL 1999
SHEERNESS, BY ALBER ELBAZ, YSL F/W 2000
ETHNICITY SPAIN, BY ALBER ELBAZ, YSL F/W 1999
FUR, BY ALBER ELBAZ –YSL F/W 2000
POP ART , BY ALBER ELBAZ , YSL 1999
TOM FORD
TOM FORD,
(born August 27, 1961) is an American fashion designer and
filmmaker. He launched his eponymous luxury brand in 2006, having previously served as the creative director at Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent. Ford directed the Academy Award–nominated films A Single Man (2009) and Nocturnal Animals (2016). He currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Ford spent his early life in the suburbs of Houston, Texas, and in San Marcos, outside Austin. He rearranged furniture in the house at 6, and gave his mother feedback on her hair and shoes. His family moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, when he was 11. In Santa Fe, he entered St. Michael's High School and later moved to Santa Fe Preparatory School, from which he graduated in 1979. At age 16, he enrolled at Bard College at Simon's Rock, but quickly dropped out. He moved to New York City to study art history at New York University (NYU). There he met Ian Falconer, who took him to Studio 54 for the first time. Ford dropped out after a year, focusing on acting in television commercials. Ford began studying interior architecture at The New School's art and design college, Parsons The New School for Design in New York City. He kept visiting Studio 54, where he realized he was gay. The club's disco-era glamor would be a major influence on his later designs.Before his last year at New School, Ford spent a year and a half in Paris, where he worked as an intern in Chloé's press office, inspiring his interest in fashion.He spent his final year at The New School studying fashion, but graduated with a degree in architecture. When interviewing for jobs after graduation, Ford said that he had attended The New School's Parsons division, but concealed that he graduated in architecture, and that his work at Chloé was a low-level public relations position. Despite his lack of experience in fashion, Ford called American designer Cathy Hardwick every day for a month in hopes of securing a job at her sportswear company. Hardwick eventually agreed to interview him. She later recalled the incident: "I had every intention of giving him no hope. I asked him who his favourite European designers were. He said, 'Armani and Chanel.' Months later I asked him why he said that, and he said, 'Because you were wearing something Armani'. Is it any wonder he got the job?" Ford worked as a design assistant for Hardwick for two years. In 1988, Ford moved to Perry Ellis, where he knew both Robert McDonald, the company's president, and Marc Jacobs, its
designer, socially. He worked at the company for two years, but grew tired of working in American fashion. In a later interview with The New York Times, he commented, "If I was ever going to become a good designer, I had to leave America. My own culture was inhibiting me. Too much style in America is tacky. It's looked down upon to be too stylish. Europeans, however, appreciate style." At the time, Italian fashion house Gucci was struggling financially and was seeking to strengthen its women's ready-to-wear presence as a part of a brand overhaul. The company's creative director, Dawn Mello said, "no one would dream of wearing Gucci". In 1990, Mello hired Ford as the brand's chief women's ready-to-wear designer and Ford moved to Milan."I was talking to a lot of people, and most didn't want the job," Mello said. "For an American designer to move to Italy to join a company that was far from being a brand would have been pretty risky." Ford and his long time partner, fashion journalist Richard Buckley, relocated to Milan that September. Ford's role at Gucci rapidly expanded; he was designing menswear within six months, and shoes soon after that. When Richard Lambertson left as design director in 1992, Ford took over his position, heading the brand's ready-to-wear, fragrances, image, advertising, and store design. In 1993, when he was in charge of designing eleven product lines, Ford worked eighteen-hour days. During these years, there were creative tensions between Ford and Maurizio Gucci, the company's chairman and 50% owner. According to Mello, "Maurizio always wanted everything to be round and brown, and Tom wanted to make it square and black." Though Maurizio Gucci wanted to fire Ford, Domenico De Sole insisted that he remain. Nonetheless, Ford's work during the early 1990s was primarily behind the scenes; his contributions to Gucci were overshadowed by those of Mello, who was the company's public face. In 1994, Ford was promoted to Creative Director of Gucci. In his first year at the helm, he introduced Halston-style velvet hipsters, skinny satin shirts and car-finish metallic patent boots. In 1995, he brought in French stylist Carine Roitfeld and photographer Mario Testino to create a series of new ad campaigns for the company. Between 1995 and 1996, sales at Gucci increased by 90%. At one point, Ford was the largest individual shareholder of Gucci stock and options. By 1999, the house, which had been almost bankrupt when Ford joined, was valued at more than $4 billion. When Gucci acquired the house of Yves Saint Laurent (YSL)
in 1999, Ford was named Creative Director of that label as well. Saint Laurent did not hide his displeasure with Ford's designs, stating "The poor man does what he can."During his time as creative director for YSL, Ford nonetheless won numerous Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards. Like his work at Gucci, which included shaving the letter G in a model's pubic hair, Ford was able to pull the classic fashion house back into the mainstream. His advertising campaigns for the YSL fragrances Opium (with a red-haired Sophie Dahl naked wearing only a necklace and stiletto heels in a sexually suggestive pose)[and YSL M7 (with martial arts champion Samuel de Cubber in complete full-frontal nudity) were controversial and provocative. After leaving Gucci, Ford launched a line of menswear, beauty, eyewear, and accessories in 2006, named after himself, "Tom Ford". De Sole became chairman of the label. Ford has described "the Tom Ford customer" as international, cultured, well-traveled, and possessing disposable income. For women, he added "strong women, ‌ intelligent women who know their own style". First Lady Michelle Obama wore an ivory floor-length evening gown designed by Ford to Buckingham Palace in 2011. He has also dressed BeyoncÊ, Jennifer Lopez, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anne Hathaway, Daniel Craig, Tom Hanks, Johnny Depp, Ryan Gosling, Will Smith, Julianne Moore, Hugh Jackman, Jon Hamm, and Henry Cavill. Ford designed Daniel Craig's suits for his last three James Bond films: Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, and Spectre. In 2013, Ford was mentioned in Justin Timberlake's song "Suit & Tie", which was a collaboration with Jay Z. Ford created the suits, shirts, and accessories for the Grammy winning "Suit & Tie" music video. He went on to dress Timberlake's 20/20 Experience World Tour, designing over 600 pieces for the tour. The same year, Jay Z released a song titled "Tom Ford" with "Tom Ford" rapped numerous times within the song. Ford responded that he was flattered and "it means that one has really penetrated and made an impact on popular culture. Following the song's release, Ford received a huge spike in online search engine queries. The song would go on to sell over a million copies and become certified platinum. In May 2019, Ford's design for an evening gown was featured in the 2019 Met Gala in New York as worn by Hollywood actor Gemma Chan on the runway and staircase of the event.
LE SMOKING, BY TOM FORD , YSL 2001
SHEERNESS- BY TOM FORD , YSL W/F 2001
ETHNICITY, CHINA –BY FORD, YSL 2004
FUR, BY TOM FORD- YSL F/W 2004
BOLD COLOURS, BY FORD- YSL 2003
STEFANO PILATI
Stefano Pilati
(born on December 10, 1965 in Milan) is an Italian fashion
designer. In 2017 he founded Random Identities, a ready-to-wear brand. From 2004 until 2012, Pilati was the head designer of Yves Saint Laurent. In late 2012 he left YSL to be head of design at Ermenegildo Zegna, where he was responsible for the Italian house's couture collections until February 2016. In tandem with that position, he also headed Zegna's Agnona brand (women's apparel) until July 2015. Having seen his hometown grow into a fashion hotspot in the 1980s, Pilati gave up his course in environmental design and joined the fashion house Cerruti as an intern. He thus decided to embrace Milan's fashion scene and set out to learn everything there was to know about ready-to-wear apparel materials and production. A velvet manufacturer offered him his first job. A few months later, Pilati was designing that company's entire collection, and presenting it to Europe's leading ready-to-wear names. The fashion house Giorgio Armani hired him as an assistant in its men's ready-to-wear department in 1993. The fashion house Prada employed Pilati to run its fabric research and development in 1995. In 1998 Prada promoted him to assistant designer at Miu Miu, working on men's and women's ready-to-wear clothing and reporting directly to Miuccia Prada. In 2000, Pilati joined fashion house Yves Saint Laurent to run its ready-to-wear and accessories design for both men's and women's; in 2004 Pilati succeeded Tom Ford in his role of Creative Director. During his tenure as head designer, Pilati was responsible for creating fashion staples such as the tulip skirt, as well as extremely successful accessories such as the Muse bag, and the YSL Tribute sandal. After eight years Pilati and the Kering Group parted ways and he left YSL in 2012. While at YSL, Pilati re-introduced booking former top Models for YSL’s ad-campaigns and worked with iconic photographers such as Juergen Teller and Inez Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin. He also created a democratic form of street advertising publishing limited edition Manifesto(s). In addition to his work at YSL, he created costumes for the production of Harold Pinter's play Betrayal, which opened in June 2011 at the Comedy Theatre in London.In late 2012, Pilati signed on at Ermenegildo Zegna, becoming the head of design at Ermenegildo Zegna and creative director of Agnona, overseeing Zegna's fashion show and the couture collection. Zegna created a new label for him, Ermenegildo Zegna Couture. Pilati
held his first Zegna Couture show during the Milan menswear collection in June 2013.[13] In the following years, his catwalk collections were critically lauded but barely produced. In 2015, he left Agnona. By February 2016, he also stepped down from his role at Zegna. In 2017, using his personal Instagram account, Pilati uploaded 17 looks from a new, self-started brand called Random Identities. Since then, Stefano Pilati works
.
as Creative Director of his own brand, based between Berlin and Milan
LE SMOKING, BY PILATI- YSL F/W 2011
SHEERNESS, BY PILATI- YSL S/S 2011
ETHNICITY , BY PILATI ,AFRICA AND MEXICOYSL S/S 2011
FUR, BY PILATI- YSL PRE-FALL 2011
BOLD COLOUR BY PILATI, YSL S/S 2011
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