Monday, June 2, 2008

Hommage à Yves Saint Laurent

As majority of you have read, in addition to my colleague's mention earlier of the passing of one of the last Legendary designers, Yves Saint Laurent, whose birth name is Yves Henri Donat Dave Mathieu-Saint-Laurent. Due to our fond admiration and respect for Monsieur Laurent and all of the marvelous contributions that he has made to the fashion world, we would like to bring you a glimpse of his finale show in 2002 - in which he retired in one last Haute Couture show that spanned the ages and continents of the world and featured almost 300 various looks- which all names came to honor. In addition to our personal dedication, we would like to hear from you, our readers. If you have a fond memory, story of inspiration, admiration or photos, please share them with us as they will be part of a post that we will do on Friday in full spectrum of the life and career of Yves Saint Laurent.


As written on Fashion Windows from the 2002 Haute Couture Show:

They didn't so much fete Yves Saint Laurent at his final fashion show in Paris Tuesday night as canonize the great couturier after an epic catwalk display. Two thousand fans, clients, critics and old friends crowded into the Pompidou Center for the most eagerly anticipated collection of the Paris haute couture season, while thousands more watched Yves swan song projected onto giant screens in the square outside. Over a hundred models crowded onto to the catwalk at the finale, as a clearly moved but never tearful Saint Laurent took his bow. Catherine Deneuve sang, before she and Laetitia Casta - both in tuxedo pants suits - exited with Yves while Nessun Dorma from Turandot swelled over the adoring audience from giant speakers. "I promised myself I wouldn't cry, but I couldn't prevent it. A great man has left fashion. Yves made women sexy, mysterious, elegant but never vulgar," Diane von Furstenberg told FWD after the show. A slew of designers came to pay their respect to Saint Laurent, his first ready-to-wear successor Albert Elbaz, Sonia Rykiel, Pat Field, Jean Louis Scherrer, Vivienne Westwood and Paul Smith to name a few. The show itself, which brings to a close a career spanning four and a half decades, was essentially a retrospective of Saint Laurent's greatest collections, worn by the crème de la crème of models.




















**Images courtesy of British Vogue Haute Couture Runway 2002

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