As Paris fashion week draws to a close, it seems only fitting to replay French director Jalil Lespert’s biographical drama, Yves Saint Laurent. Released in late June of this year, Yves Saint Laurent portrays the legendary designer entering the fashion world, enduring the suffocating rules of his early apprenticeships and subsequently building the YSL empire.
Lespert takes viewers behind the shop windows, runways and model castings that preserved Saint Laurent’s image. Instead, the film delves into the love, addiction and manic depression that plagued the prodigy’s life. It is widely agreed that Yves Saint Laurent was destined to revolutionize modern fashion, but unbeknownst to many are the shocking demons that threatened to spoil his budding career.
At only 21 years old, Christian Dior selected his protégé, Yves Saint Laurent, to succeed him upon his death, and in 1957 Saint Laurent took the reins. However, despite landing an executive position, Saint Laurent enjoyed little creative liberty and despised the repetitive, traditional Dior style to which he was bound. He constantly fought his directors and nearly went mad within their confines. After a few years of unsuccessful attempts at brand experimentation, Saint Laurent lost his job and experienced international humiliation.
His time at Dior and public firing did not ensue in vain, however. In addition to planting his name on the radar of fashion’s elite, Saint Laurent’s stint at Dior led him to his longtime lover and business partner, Pierre Bergé.
Saint Laurent fortuitously met Bergé at Laurent’s premier Dior runway event. Bergé is portrayed as instantly enraptured by the timid, awkward, camera-shy Laurent. Bergé is drawn to the talented young designer, for he recognizes Laurent’s natural ability and potential beyond Dior. They shortly couple, mixing business and pleasure as they build the YSL couture house.
Though Laurent’s team works tirelessly to prove wrong doubtful critics, their stress is balanced (and arguably dominated) by reckless recreation. Laurent frequents Paris and New York City’s most chic nightclubs, where he develops a reputation for binge drinking and abusing cocaine. He solicits himself for casual sex and shirks his responsibilities as a designer.
When season deadlines approach, he hides out at his Moroccan bungalow, tripping and wasting away the days. The pressure on Laurent to impress, remain innovative and avoid bad publicity triggers his downward spiral.
Bergé is largely responsible for keeping Laurent from total catastrophe. Even when their relationship is on the fritz (as is often the case) due to infidelity, jealousy and a number of other issues, Bergé always pulls Laurent out of the darkness. Overdose, suicide or mental breakdown would have ended YSL before it began had Bergé not fought tooth and nail to keep the company alive.
Although Yves Saint Laurent is rife with all the trite depictions of French lifestyle (the sex, the models, the fashion, the romance, the cigarettes, the nightlife and of course more sex), the stimulating dialogue and stunning cinematography make Yves Saint Laurent an entertaining and moving biography worth watching every Paris fashion week.
