fashionologie

Pierre Bergé Gives His Blessing to New YSL Designer Hedi Slimane

fashionologie — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 09:57:32 PDT

Yves Saint Laurent at his final couture show in 2002.

>> Pierre Bergé, who lived with Yves Saint Laurent for almost 50 years, says new YSL designer Hedi Slimane is in for an uphill battle - but Bergé believes Slimane is ready for the task.

Bergé told T Magazine that filling Saint Laurent's shoes is "a great problem, very complicated, to recreate the work of a genius. Like trying to rewrite Faulkner," Bergé said. "To put your stamp on the name of Yves Saint Laurent requires someone who has talent, conviction, rigor, a demanding nature and a great sense of color."

And Slimane, who was announced as the successor to former YSL creative director Stefano Pilati earlier this month, has that - or at least Bergé thinks he does. He called Bergé "a man of talent who can preserve the genius and legacy of Yves Saint Laurent."

Bergé is currently in Denver, CO, exhibiting some 200 of Saint Laurent's finest pieces at the Denver Art Museum. The retrospective will only show in Denver and will run through July 8.

Jeremy Laing, Anthony Vaccarello Among 2011 ANDAM Prize Nominees

fashionologie — Thu, 26 May 2011 14:32:01 PDT

>> In recent years, Hakaan, Giles Deacon, and Gareth Pugh have all been awarded the ANDAM Prize - the largest international fashion prize of its kind - and as a result moved their fashion shows to Paris. Who will be next? The 2011 nominees have just been announced, and include Adam Kimmel, Anthony Vaccarello, Commuun, Jeremy Laing, Matthew Harding, and Yiqing Yin. The 22 jury members - which this year include Pierre Berge, Delfine Arnault, Emmanuelle Alt, Humberto Leon, Sarah Lerfel, and Hilary Alexander, will meet on June 28 to select the 2011 prize winner, who will receive 200,000 euros (approx. $282,000); a donation of 10,000 euros ($14,100) worth of Swarovski crystals for their Spring 2012 collection; and mentorship by former Chloe CEO Ralph Toledano for two seasons on creative and commercial development. [Filep Motwary]

Are the Current Pressures of the Fashion Industry Causing Designers to Crash? Karl Lagerfeld, Marc Jacobs, and More Speak

fashionologie — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 14:24:21 PST

>> Between Alexander McQueen committing suicide last year, John Galliano's drunken, anti-Semitic outburst, and Christophe Decarnin being sidelined for depression treatments, many are starting to wonder if the fashion industry and its current pressures - particularly the demand for more and more collections, released faster and faster - are to blame for designers spinning out of control. Karl Lagerfeld, Michael Kors, and more address the issue:

Karl Lagerfeld: “I see designing, running a company, like a high-level athletic activity. I don’t want to hear anything about the fragility or any of those things. If an athlete is too fragile to run, he cannot run. And this is exactly the same. You don’t accept this kind of business if you’re too much of an artist. I believe in discipline, so I’m not the right person to cry about weakness and things like this, but maybe I’m not human.”

Marc Jacobs: “You don’t think bank tellers have problems? You don’t think people in the middle of the suburbs have problems? Blaming is such a complete waste. I mean, it’s so pointless. To say, you know, my mother was absent and therefore I ran amok, it’s ridiculous. It’s a self-destructive nature, it’s a mental, physical and a kind of spiritual malady . . . people who are happy and healthy and spiritually well don’t do things to hurt themselves.”

Yves Saint Laurent's longtime business partner Pierre Berge: “I have a lot more sympathy for people who have to take the train to work every day. What a load of nonsense! No, no, no. Designers are artisans who are extremely privileged to have a poetic profession. They are not artists. We have to stop saying that they are.”

Marc Jacobs's longtime business partner Robert Duffy: “You cannot blame the industry. The majority of actors are not drug addicts, the majority of designers are not drug addicts.”

Theory founder Andrew Rosen: “I don’t see fashion as an industry being ahead of the world in terms of this issue. It’s a devastating and unfortunate condition that happens in every walk of life. It doesn’t make it better or OK, it’s a devastating illness to all those around it. Drug addiction, and addiction in general, is unfortunately part of society today. Maybe because we’re so close to our industry, we feel it more. Whenever it happens, it’s horrible.”

Michael Kors: "No question . . . I mean, I forget what season I’m in sometimes. I think every designer in today’s world, I don’t care whether you’re a designer who makes clothes that are phantasmagorical or very pragmatic, you have to figure out something that can ground you and bring you back. Whatever it is, if you go to the gym too much or you travel too much, you’ve got to have time to escape. I always tell everyone the crazy conversation I’ve had forever with actors, if they do two films in a row, and they’ve lived these characters and they’re on the set away from their friends and family, but then they take a year off. What are designers supposed to say? 'I’m tired. I’m not doing fall. Wear last year’s clothes, and maybe get some new nail polish.' It’s endless."

Photographer Mert Alas: “I’m the kind of person that I live under pressure, but I enjoy the pressure, so it very much relates to your own personality. Of course we’re all under pressure. The bus driver is under pressure. But, you know, it’s how you come out of it. If you can make good fun with it, pressure can be enjoyable.”

New York Times's Cathy Horyn: "For designers already at big houses, the pressures must reach absurd levels . . . Many people in professional and creative fields are under intense pressure, but for designers that pressure is manifested on the runway. The problem goes beyond having to produce multiple collections a year; it’s the nearly brutalizing feeling that something new and relevant must be communicated each season."

Co-President of PR firm KCD Ed Filipowski: “As a publicist, I have also taken on many times the role of ‘fashion therapist’ to my clients. Globalization, digitalization - the speed and scope of our work - has added a tremendous amount of pressure not only to the creative field but everyone in this industry. I would venture to say we are all doing at least twice as much work twice as fast as we were five years ago.”

Will Hedi Slimane Be Announced Yves Saint Laurent's New Designer Around Paris Fashion Week?

fashionologie — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 08:53:06 PST

>> For the better part of a year now, Stefano Pilati's standing at Yves Saint Laurent has been under intense scrutiny. After reports circulated that he had renewed his contract at the house for three more years in October, the rumors of his imminent departure subsided - until Saint Laurent CEO Valerie Hermann, who with Pilati restored the house to profitability, announced last week she was stepping down to become CEO of Reed Krakoff on April 1. She helped recruit her successor at YSL, former Lanvin CEO Paul Deneve.

Then, a couple of days ago, someone tweeted under Kenzo's PR handle: "Just heard BIG news about this being a certain designer at an established French house's last season and being replaced by someone major!!" and "CEO has just left and now the designer replaced by someone who has moved away from design the last couple of yrs but stayed in fashion." The tweets - which seem to point to Pilati as the deposed and Hedi Slimane as the successor - have since been taken down (Note that YSL is under the PPR umbrella, whereas Kenzo is part of LVMH).

Now, Hint is reporting that according to sources, Hermann didn't leave her post last week, but rather was let go because of low sales volume. And Slimane - who designed for Saint Laurent before Dior Homme - has been chosen as Pilati's replacement, partially due to his friendship (read: ability to get along) with Pierre Berge. Word is, one way or another, the matter will be addressed by a spokesperson around Paris Fashion Week.

And in the aftermath? There's already been suggestions that Carine Roitfeld with consult for Slimane at the brand, and of course, there's the rumor that Pilati is set to take over at Giorgio Armani after the designer's retirement.

Stefano Pilati Is a Glee Fan, Has "A Nice Tension" with Yves Saint Laurent's CEO

fashionologie — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 14:42:05 PST

>> Stefano Pilati has an appreciation for things like Pee-Wee Herman, Glee, Rihanna, and LCD Soundsystem (which now provides music for Yves Saint Laurent's shows), but he also knows how to get serious. Yves Saint Laurent's sales have gone from nearly $100 million in losses to a profit, he tells W's February 2011 issue - not that it's been easy.

Because the label's founder so transcended fashion, Pilati says, he feels obliged to design to a higher standard - creating collections to build a woman's wardrobe over time rather than capturing a moment. His debut Yves Saint Laurent collection, he explains, “was the first time in my career that I didn’t think about a theme, when I started to think about something that could be timeless. I said to myself, You need to be relevant to a different level now. You can’t be only ‘I like red, and clogs instead of moccasins.’”

Working at Yves Saint Laurent has also made Pilati think about more than just the clothes he wants to create. "I’m not a businessman,” he says, “but I’ve become one by necessity.” It's routine for fashion brands to give accessories prime real estate in their ad campaigns - because handbags and shoes account for such a large percentage of their businesses. But Inez van Lamsweerde, who photographs Pilati's YSL ads every season with her husband, Vinoodh Matadin, says: “In the beginning, we almost had to beg him to put a bag in the picture. He said, ‘No, with this dress, you would not wear a bag - that’s not chic; that’s not how it works.’” Pilati has learned since - the latest Saint Laurent ads show Arizona Muse, bag in plain view.

When Pilati is asked whether he wishes he had a business partner counterpart like Pierre Berge to take all the commercial aspects off his hands, he replies: “It would be fantastic to be purely creative. Still, you want to walk in the street and see people wearing your clothes, and to do that you have to direct your creativity. So you already fulfill a part of what we think about as marketing from a commercial point of view. Giving the pantsuit to women - that was creative and instinctive, but it was also supported by the fact that women needed it, and, Berge or no Berge, Saint Laurent was the one who did it. The role of Berge, or today of the CEO, is to create a structure that can help your objective and sell the idea.”

There have been rumors about Pilati's standing at the company, but YSL CEO Valerie Hermann describes her relationship with Pilati as “a nice tension.” They have “constructive confrontations,” she says, but: “I’m learning from what he’s saying and listening with respect. What’s most important is that we always agree about where we want to go with the brand, and the confrontation is about how to get there.”

Pilati breaks his relationship with Hermann down as thus: "The roles are by nature split in the sense that the CEO has to respond to a group with numbers and performance and budget and business plans, while the creative director is almost at the service of the CEO. In those days, Saint Laurent was doing the tuxedo, and Berge helped him sell it. Now we live in a moment when we need to thank the CEO. I’m doing the bags, I’m doing the shoes, I’m doing the satin dresses, I’m doing the tuxedo, but if the performance of the brand is good, it’s because it has been managed well, and that includes managing the creative director.”

Yves Saint Laurent Documentary L'Amour Fou, With Rare Footage, to Be Released Next Year

fashionologie — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 10:34:00 PST

>> The string of fashion documentaries - Lagerfeld Confidential, Valentino: The Last Emperor, Picture Me, and The September Issue - isn't ending. IFC Films just announced its acquisition of the French documentary Yves Saint Laurent L'Amour Fou, which it will release in 2011. The film chronicles the Story of Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge all the way through Berge's decision to sell their multimillion dollar private art collection upon the designer's death, through rare archives and exclusive images - some of which can be seen here. Berge and Saint Laurent muses, Betty Catroux and Loulou de la Falaise, were all interviewed for the film - the trailer for which is above.

Stefano Pilati Said to Have Renewed Contract at Yves Saint Laurent; Karl Lagerfeld Rumored to Be Retiring in 2012

fashionologie — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 14:44:11 PDT

>> In response to the rumors of Stefano Pilati's tenuous footing at Yves Saint Laurent, more rumors: Balmain's Christophe Decarnin, former Saint Laurent men's designer Hedi Slimane, and Raf Simons were all reportedly approached for the job, but nonetheless, Pilati is said to have recently extended his contract for another three years. Word is, Hint reports: "Pierre Bergé has no interest in seeing the YSL brand continue. He'd rather see it killed and the legacy remain untouchable, observed only from afar through exhibitions, films, auctions, etc. As his foundation still controls the YSL archives, he can and does make life difficult for whomever wants a closer look at the house's DNA," which may have contributed to the potential replacements turning Pilati's position down. There's also speculation that Karl Lagerfeld plans to retire on his 30th anniversary at Chanel in 2012 - "it's thought he'll stage a massive, never-before-seen, no-expense-spared farewell" - leaving Alber Elbaz to take his place and Olivier Theyskens to take the reins at Lanvin. [Hint]

fashionologie — Thu, 06 May 2010 08:27:17 PDT

>> Yves Saint Laurent's Paris Apartment Put Up for Sale -After much of Yves Saint Laurent's private art collection has been auctioned in the past couple of years since his death, Pierre Berge put the designer's Left Bank apartment up for sale this week. Saint Laurent and Berge first moved into the apartment on the rue de Babylone in 1970 and bought it eight years later. The asking price for the 11-room duplex, which covers 5,600 square feet with a 4,700 square foot garden, is €23.5 million (approx. $31.4 million). [NY Times]

Loic Prigent's Habillees Videos Capture Anna Wintour Implying that Carine Roitfeld Should Better Support Young French Designers

fashionologie — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:46:44 PST

>> During the Spring 2010 season, Loic Prigent, director of documentaries Marc Jacobs & Louis Vuitton, Signe Chanel, and The Day Before, and French TV personality Mademoiselle Agnes teamed up to film Habillees, chronicling the search for the next French design talent. The Sundance Channel uploaded the six Habillees webisodes this week, and the hour's worth of content features everyone from John Galliano taking his runway bow to Karl Lagerfeld waltzing to Nicholas Ghesquiere saying of his work: "Wearing Balenciaga is a choice. These clothes aren't easy to wear. They're not meant to be easy to wear."

When Pierre Berge, former partner of Yves Saint Laurent and president of ANDAM, which annually bestows 160,000 euros to designers under 40 seeking to expand their businesses in France - most recently awarded were Giles Deacon for 2009 and Gareth Pugh for 2008 - was asked by Mademoiselle Agnes who the next big French talent is, he replied: "No one."

But perhaps best of all are the scenes with Anna Wintour, who is shown exiting the Rochas show flanked by two bodyguards, one who brusquely nudges a woman out of the way. Just after, as Anna descends a set of stairs, the other bodyguard turns a flashlight on her feet so she can walk without fear of tripping in her heels. Later, Agnes catches up with Anna before the Balmain show to ask her how important she thinks it is to support young designers. Notice the subtle dig at Carine Roitfeld in Anna's response:

I think it's totally important for all of us in the American fashion industry to support the young designers, and I think that's why New York's become such a vibrant fashion center, because people go there not only to see the Donna Karans of the world but a whole new generation. I'm just so sorry that there isn't something like that in Paris that's similar. I think that they should look for the younger generation here [in Paris] as well. Not only New York but London really supports their young talent; Franca Sozzani at Italian Vogue supports the young Italian designers, and I think when France is so known for its fashion industry - for them not to be reaching out to help younger people today is really a shame. [Agnes: "And there's space in your pages for them."] There's space in everybody's pages.

The videos! (The Anna Wintour bit is in Part 5) »

Tom Ford: Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge "Made My Life Such Misery"

fashionologie — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:58:25 PST

>> The relationship between Yves Saint Laurent, his business partner Pierre Berge, and his ready-to-wear successor Tom Ford was clearly a strained one. In 2004 as Ford was leaving the label, Saint Laurent said of Ford: "I think he has a lot of talent for, what do you call it, marketing. But he never showed interest in the archives." In between tales of his first sexual escapades and how he snuck his longtime partner Richard Buckley into A Single Man, Ford returns the favor in the December 2009-January 2010 issue of The Advocate:

“I don’t even remember much about my time at Yves Saint Laurent, though I do think some of my best collections were [there]-other than that black-and-white initial one. That one wasn’t very successful and wasn’t very good. But being at Yves Saint Laurent was such a negative experience for me even though the business boomed while I was there. Yves and his partner, Pierre Bergé, were so difficult and so evil and made my life such misery.

"Pierre and Yves were just evil" »