RIP to YSL...the death of an ICON

Stars turn out for YSL funeral

06/06/2008

The funeral of the legendary designer Yves Saint Laurent took place at the Saint-Roch church on the Rue Saint-Honore in Paris yesterday afternoon.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy and his former model wife Carla Bruni led a group of mourners at the invitation-only service that included Saint Laurent's companion Pierre Berge, Catherine Deneuve, John Galliano, Vivienne Westwood, John Paul Gaultier, Valentino and Claudia Schiffer.

Sarkozy said: "One of the greatest names of fashion has disappeared, the first to elevate haute couture to the rank of art. He was convinced that beauty was a luxury that every man and woman needed."

Saint-Laurent, who died of a brain tumour at the age of 71, will have his ashes scattered in the country of his birth, Morocco.

"He spent much of his life in Morocco. He will stay there in a country that influenced and marked him greatly," Berge confirmed to AFP.

"He will end up in the Maghreb, where he was born."


Yves Saint Laurent

The son of an insurance company president, Yves Saint Laurent was born in Oran, Algeria. He inherited his fashion sense from his mother and his mothers friends. He studied first at the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture, but felt frustrated by the syllabus so left after a few months. Saint Laurent left home at the age of 17 to work for the French designer Christian Dior. Following Dior's death in 1957, Yves, at the age of 21, was put in charge of the effort of saving the Dior house from financial ruin.

Shortly after this success, he was conscripted to serve in the French Army during the Algerian War of Independence. After 20 days, the stress of being hazed by fellow soldiers led the fragile Saint Laurent to be institutionalized in a French mental hospital, where he underwent psychiatric treatment, including electroshock therapy, for a nervous breakdown.[3]

In 1962, in the wake of his nervous breakdown, Saint Laurent was released from Dior and he and his lover, Pierre Bergé, started their own fashion house with funding from Atlanta millionaire J. Mack Robinson. The couple split romantically in 1976 but remained business partners. During the 1960s and 1970s, the firm popularized fashion trends such as the beatnik look, safari jackets for men and women, tight pants and tall, thigh-high boots, including the creation of arguably the most famous classic tuxedo suit for women in 1966, Le Smoking suit. He also started mainstreaming the idea of wearing silhouettes from the 1920s, '30s and '40s. He was the first, in 1966, to popularize ready-to-wear in an attempt to democratize fashion, with Rive Gauche and the boutique of the same name. He was also the first designer to use black models in his runway shows.


I adore Yves. I was introduced to his collections by Cordell. He wore the YSL cologne. I have always had such great respect for this man and his vision. His was genius at its best. He was before his time and of his time at the same time. He should be paid great homage. I will be presenting a dedication show to his honor in October. Im sure he is somewhere whispering into the ears of the next great fashion designers.. and the muse for many others..

my FIRST love?? {the ANSWER may suprise you}

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised- Gil Scott Heron
by larsen42

Which came first: the chicken or the egg? Who knows? Well here is a better question. Which came first: women who loved and embraced themselves or "Carrie Bradshaw" telling women to love and embrace themselves? Okay, YES I went to the movies yesterday. As a matter of fact, I set my alarm for 8am, got up, dressed up very stylishly and took myself to the movies to see Sex and the City. In my early twenties I would go over to Brandy and Anitra's and we would all watch that weeks episode and chat it up afterwards.

But watching every episode of this series couldn't prepare me for the movie. I wont give it away to those who haven't seen it, but I will say this: it gave me a moment of clarity in my own life and the courage to live the way I chose and to have no regrets about it.

Which brings me back to my blog title, My first love? To know my first love will give me insight into why I do what I do and what made me love it. I had a garage sale the week before graduation, and in conversation someone asked about some artwork I was selling. That started a conversation with my mom and I about 'the arts' and the ones I love. I explained to the person that I was(in what feel like a past life) an artist, a poet and performer. They then asked why I stopped any/all of it. My mom replied that "Fashion was her new love. You know how young girls are, but art was her first love." I then disagreed. Wasn't music my first love? I wasn't sure. I needed time to think....

So here is the conclusion. My earliest memories are of writing. Making a Mothers day card for my mom and creating my own rhyming poem for the inside. Then maybe I was 7 or 8 I remember writing a song. It wasnt a good song, I still remember the lyrics...I wont type them for you, but I thought it was clever. LOL

For me poetry and art went kind of hand and hand. They were my first loves. My art never seemed to measure up (in my mind) to others I saw around me, but poetry; MY poetry always amazed the masses. In high school I made a killing junior and senior year making 1of a kind valentines for my classmates boyfriends. Complete with art and original poetry!! LOL Wow, I knew then that I wanted to be an entrepreneur. It was also in my junior year that I met the lady named, Fashion. A rep from SCAD[Savannah College of Art and Design] came to speak to my art class. My teacher set up a one on one meeting for me and after reviewing my fashion sketches, I was told that the school would be in touch. And they were constantly through my senior year. My last year of high school my teacher designed an independent study for me to delve into the study of fashion.

My 4 years at SCAD taught me so much. But they will most be remembered for being the place where I fell in and out of love with fashion design. I got into fashion right before the peak. I got in before everyone and they momma decided they could throw some bleach on some jeans and call themselves a designer. Once it became uber mainstream, I lost my interest; I refused to be lost in the abyss of ____________ "fashion designer".

Whats that in the background? What do you hear? The soundtrack to my life. Music has been with me all along. My love for music, my family jokes, is one of the many things that my fathers West African blood ingrained in me. Rhythm has always come naturally to me. I have a love for music that few understand. Music has sustained me through times in my life that would have broken others. But alas, music was not my first love. It was and will always be poetry. My drug will always be an open mic. The rush that flows throw me before I step onto stage and after a great show is like nothing I have ever felt. The pen will always be my weapon and my tongue the mighty sword. =)

NEW POETRY TO COME TO THIS BLOG VERY VERY SOON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(arent you excited??)