Fashion Statement: Yves Saint Laurent
“Fashion is like a party. Getting dressed is preparing to play a role.” —French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, who died on this day in 2008. It was Saint Laurent’s idea to promote YSL pour Homme, the designer’s first eau de toilette for men, by sitting for the camera wearing only his glasses. He told photographer Jeanloup Sieff, “I want to create a scandal,” and intended to pose with the perfume bottle between his legs but Sieff talked him out of it. The backlit, moody image did cause a scandal, as well as the boost in sales Saint Laurent hoped for. Years later, Sieff said he regretted not shooting the image the way Yves wanted to.
Want to learn more about Saint Laurent? Revisit the Story Behind the Style that recaps Saint Laurent’s legendary fashion show that introduced the now-iconic le smoking, or play Yves Roulette, and click on the Yves Saint Laurent tag in the topics cloud (below right) and see what stories come up. To read more Fashion Statements, click here.
Photo: Yves Saint Laurent for YSL pour Homme, 1971, by the late Jeanloup Sieff.
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2 Responses to “Fashion Statement: Yves Saint Laurent”
Um…I had never seen that Tom Ford ad before so clicking on “between his legs” was quite a surprise for me, haha. Oh Yves, you did it so much better.
Beautiful image of the man.