Saint Laurent S/S 2015 Paris

[Littleathquakes]

No, just no. The heels on Cara D. looks too stripperish.

OMG they're totally stripper platforms! And her second outing, the blue ones, too.

 

[elle_gb]

I like Hedi personally he's so talented, this collection wasn't half bad though. However, it didn't speak YSL much either I love his debut collection so much. I wish I could see some of that again.

 

[GIVENCHYlover]

I honestly can't believe that a historic brand like Yves Saint Laurent is treated like this: Hedi really has no respect for the house and his vision is mono dimensional, exaggeratedly dated and superficial.

Who cares? The increase in profit has reached double/triple figures.

 

[educo]

What the hell is wrong with him? Years ago there were whispers about the coveted Slimane jacket, perfect in it's cut and fabrication. I'm more sure than ever he is just better as a menswear designer. A lot of these male designers really don't understand women; their bodies or their needs. It's a damn joke that Hedi is even able to continue this sh*t.

 

[birdofparadise]

"Je déteste les bourgeoises. Elles ne s’habillent pas, elles sont très ennuyeuses"

I feel that this is arguably his best womenswear collection for the house. The designs feel more self assured. It's interesting to see him take on 70s iconography of the house that Ford and Pilati also took comfort in. His Glam Rock spin however champions approachability. As usual, his menswear inspired looks are the strongest though the collection as a whole feels cohesive and resolved.

These strengths are also its weakness--Do we need to see turbins, gold, snakes, fur chubbies, that particular shade of green at YSL anymore? Even though I wasn't crazy about his earlier collections, I welcomed that sense of discomfort because the collections felt true and welcomed in a sourness that was part and parcel of the capriciousness and idiosyncrasies that YSL loved in women. Maybe she'll be out to play again next season.

 

[nita-karoliina]

I love it. Very wearable.

 

[fierceboi]

Saint Laurent RTW Spring 2015


What is fashion? Several seasons into it, that question again swirled around the exiting throng at Hedi Slimane’s fashion show for Saint Laurent.

Moodwise: cute, young, rock ’n’ roll, a little vulgar, with arch, sky-high platforms that felt dated beyond the presentation’s obvious, intended retro. Clotheswise, an unmistakable merch message: jacket; short, flirty dress or skirt; and for those who dare, short shorts — and a girl’s good to go. Good to go in what were, piece-by-piece, some appealing clothes.

Slimane’s item of the season is a short jacket. Based on two classics — the jeans and motorcycle jacket — it came in a multitude of versions: black leather, green leather, patchwork suede, snake, band-leader red. Ditto his saucy, full-skirted dresses. They came printed with cherries, stars and flowers, and in numerous takes on the LBD. Some charmed; some telegraphed, “Hello, Mr. West Side Highway.”

They didn’t telegraph luxury (though the tailoring and embroideries in particular looked well-made), at least not in the traditional sense. These were kids’ clothes luxed up for the designer customer. Nor did they show any sense of Slimane’s perspective as a designer beyond his continuing literal embrace of retro motifs. And, if the returns from his brief tenure at the house run constant, it will all sell like mad.

So back to the question: What is fashion, fashion at the designer level, runway-worthy fashion? Is it the clothes themselves? Should designers at the highest reaches of ready-to-wear do more than retread? Do they have a responsibility to do more? Or is fashion now about the aura surrounding a designer and/or brand, with the clothes beside the point? After the show, the Saint Laurent p.r. office e-mailed show notes to some editors. It covered invitation artwork (Robert Heinecken); music (an irritating original ditty by Aleide); hair and makeup (Didier Malige and Aaron De Mey) and set design and styling (Hedi Slimane). Typically when a brand bothers with show notes, there’s something included about the clothes — the inspiration, the mood, something. Not this time.

WWD

 

[Illithid Dude]

What the hell is wrong with him? Years ago there were whispers about the coveted Slimane jacket, perfect in it's cut and fabrication. I'm more sure than ever he is just better as a menswear designer. A lot of these male designers really don't understand women; their bodies or their needs. It's a damn joke that Hedi is even able to continue this sh*t.

Say what you will about his presentation, the man still cuts an incredible jacket. As a man, Saint Laurent is where I go if I want a beautiful tuxedo blazer, and were I a women I would go there as well.

 

[lemeray]

I really like it and I am not going to expect Hedi to completely blow me away. Look at the end of the day I want to buy his stuff! He knows how to make a killer blazer, a skirt, a dress, pants and great shoes. It's basics I will wear forever.

People can keep saying how bad his collections are season after season, but Saint Laurent is literally laughing all the way to the bank.

 

[Pricciao]

The whole brand is all styling now, most girls can go through the collection, find a look they like and go to their local mall and whip it.

I guess that is the point of high fashion influencing the mass markets but here it's so direct and easy.

I find Saint Laurent thrift shop a playful idea to work on, once get out of the boundary of what high fashion should look like and try to flip through clothes, it's quite fun to look at. so I'm all for Hedi's take this round.
but would I remember anything after his spring 2013 collection? so far I'd say
snap via Miranda Sings

 

[Creative]

OMG they're totally stripper platforms! And her second outing, the blue ones, too.

Those are inspired in the Raymonde sandal from 1971... And you know who Raymonde was, right?

I guess this is the sort of people who say his approach is disrespectful to Yves.


The show is just 'clothes' and styling... But don't get why people are surprised. That's what 99% of the shows are made of these days.

 

[blackcherrified]

Saint Laurent RTW Spring 2015

...

Typically when a brand bothers with show notes, there’s something included about the clothes — the inspiration, the mood, something. Not this time.

WWD

WWD is playing with fire. They don't want the invite for FW2015.

Few more invitations freed up for some Topshop-clad 17yo randomly plucked from the street and planted in front of Anna Wintour in her front row seat.

 

[vetements]

Beautiful collection to me. Call it topshop anyshop, but they do look and definitely feel different.

 

[blackcherrified]

Hmmm... Can I just post a question to all the fans...? Just an innocuous question...

No doubt, I agree with you all on the point that the cutting of the clothing I see in the store is impeccable, the clothing fits well and all...

But when you guys say that you all are fans of Slimane because "he cuts the best jacket/shirts/blazer/trousers"...

... is it because you guys know that Slimane will be there by the table, holding the tape/curve/straight ruler, creating the patterns from the tracing paper, then transferring the patterns onto the fabric, cutting it, sewing the fabrics together, adjusting the cut on the stand/fit model, after that going back to the pattern and editing it, then sending the pattern to the factory for production?

(As in... imho, when I want to say someone 'cuts the best ...', I will say it when I know that the person does all these, like Gabrielle Chanel, Jeanne Lanvin... and I will definitely not use that description on designers like Karl Lagerfeld.

If the designer is someone who sketches, send it to the seamstress, then when the outfit is completed and all he does is to say "I want a smaller armhole/can you nip and tuck the waist a bit more/this stitch needs to be longer"...

No, that designer does not 'cut' anything. It's the seamstress who is doing all the cutting and the designer is directing and hence, imho again, he does not deserve the "he does the best cutting" compliments. He 'knows' the best cut but he does not 'cut'.)

So... can any fans... no offence or anything, just enlighten me please, if Slimane really cut the piece of clothing from start to finish... or he's just the director who 'knows the best cutting' but doesn't cut literally?

To me, if he's the 'director', he does not cut the best jacket. (That's just my humble opinions but yeh...)

 

[vetements]

Just relooked the entire 13 mins video, it's really good. It's sleek, it's now.
I also don't agree that it's meant for kids 14,15 yo, they wouldn't ooze the sex appeal for sure.
Choice of colors are also breathtaking.
And in this day and time, which designer clothings we cannot get from highstreet? But we all know the differences, it's exhorbitant prices aside.

 

[Zazie]

No doubt, I agree with you all on the point that the cutting of the clothing I see in the store is impeccable, the clothing fits well and all...

But when you guys say that you all are fans of Slimane because "he cuts the best jacket/shirts/blazer/trousers"...
....

I'm the opposite of a fan of this collection and I want to point out that the cut here is in fact nothing special and very dated.

 

[KKnardi]

Suzy's raving about this collection:

Saint Laurent: Simplistic Genius

I am fascinated by Hedi Slimane’s collections for Saint Laurent, not just for the mesmerising sets – this season a metal structure on which rainbow colours were projected in an eerie glow – nor for the designer’s choice of music, although two hours later I was still singing inside my head, “Un, deux, trois, Oh là là!” The electro-pop disco chanteuse Aleide had sung that over and over as the models in their flimsy dresses, too shrunken at the bust not to display a lot of little bosoms, walked the runway perched on gawky platform shoes.

What intrigues me is the idea that these Seventies-inspired clothes look cheap, even tawdry, in their skimpy shapes and gaudy glitter, but are actually perfectly made in fine materials.

This is the inverse of a fashion culture that has existed since fashion merchandising began – or before. Surely mediaeval types and even ancient Romans would try to ape the style of their social superiors? In the 20th century, the invention of nylon allowed the poor to look like they were wearing silk, and rhinestones have long mimicked diamonds.

But here is Hedi Slimane doing exactly the opposite. The “cheap” little dresses with scooped “U”-line bodices – a trend guaranteed to hit the high street stores in a heart beat – are classy pieces embellished with skill.

The boxy fur jackets that Hedi admitted backstage were inspired directly from Yves Saint Laurent’s “chubbies” were shocking in the Seventies because they were a reminder of the war years. On the runway here, as downy white feathers, they were adorable.

With taut suede and leather jackets, sleek pin-striped tailoring, Lurex sweaters and fireworks of embroidery on a velvet cape, Slimane went back to the YSL glory days – portrayed so graphically in the recent film, Saint Laurent, which revealed the designer’s wild years in the Sixties and Seventies.

Slimane, who currently has an exhibition of his photography at the Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent Foundation in Paris, took a particular vision of that period: the photographic manipulations of Los Angeles artist Robert Heinecken from 1963-74.

A slim book presented to the audience featured the artist’s re-appropriated “para-photography”: surreal juxtapositions and overlays of sexual imagery with magazine and newspaper pages. A MoMA exhibition of Heinecken’s work went on display this year at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, where Slimane lives, and must surely be seen as a major inspiration to the designer.

The concept of art feeding fashion has been going on for a generation. So what does this have to do with Saint Laurent and its brand image for Spring/Summer 2015?

Hedi Slimane captured on the runway the spirit of the Seventies that belonged, in fashion terms, to Yves Saint Laurent. Hedi interpreted that in a cherry patterned dress sloping off one shoulder, a pinstriped men’s jacket (but worn with leather shorts), little black dresses scooped to the rib cage, and a gold-buttoned navy blazer. There was even a Forties-style turban from a YSL collection that was considered a distasteful reminder of the war years in its time.

The designer re-envisioned this look as worn by young women just over the sexual threshold. And his audience, which included music legend Lenny Kravitz, Pete Doherty, and members of Daft Punk, cheered Hedi on.

The clothes are simplistic for those who prefer complex fashion. But they look accessible, which was Yves Saint Laurent’s intention in his youth before the brand became a bourgeois paradise.

I am prepared to bet a rhinestone cowboy belt that these modern designs will fly out of the stores. And I declare Hedi Slimane a genius of re-invention at Saint Laurent.

Suzy Menkes, http://en.vogue.fr/

 

[Phuel]

So... can any fans... no offence or anything, just enlighten me please, if Slimane really cut the piece of clothing from start to finish... or he's just the director who 'knows the best cutting' but doesn't cut literally?

To me, if he's the 'director', he does not cut the best jacket. (That's just my humble opinions but yeh...)

No, Hedi does not sew. I suspect you may already know this. It's just a figure of speech really, when one says Hedi-- or Tom, or Miuccia, or Rei, "cuts" a mean jacket, when in reality, none of them sew: They are the creative figureheads of their labels. There are countless tailors out there, but without the eye for cut and fit, one remains a tailor rather than a designer.

I do think Hedi is a good designer with a great creative vision. What others understandably deem as repetitive, common and dated, I admire as consistency with a flair for the youth subcultures of music-- then and now. And I do adore how he gets the vibe so right for his presentations, and campaigns: It's a lifestyle he's showing-- not just fashion.

Not a fan of the vintage replicas; I have a feeling he'll be doing flares for a/w 2015... But the intricately bead-embroidered pieces with either their metallic or vibrant jewel-tone glitter, in very simple shapes are so dynamic, so carefree-- the casual way they're worn and styled is a great approach. I don't think high street can ever do that...

 

[educo]

Say what you will about his presentation, the man still cuts an incredible jacket. As a man, Saint Laurent is where I go if I want a beautiful tuxedo blazer, and were I a women I would go there as well.

As you should. I'd do the same. But this collection is more than tuxedo blazers.

 

[BerlinRocks]

I don't really know why I'm still writing here (that's probably why this thread keeps growing... because everybody wants to play a verbal ping-pong on this collection.) ...

but here, you can have a look at ALL YSL collections from 1962 to 2002. That might help some of you ...

And as a reminder, I just want to underline the fact that when Slimane was at YSL menswear (some of you probably don't even know), he was interested in the same period (Marrakech, the very late 60s and 1970s, Betty ...).

Slimane has always been a "stylist" (observer) more than a "designer" (maker/doer) ... The difference, to me, is that when he was at Dior Homme, he "created" a (very long-term) trend for men. Now, in the 2010s, it is more difficult to be a trend-setter the way he'd been in the early 2000s (even though he was just looking at what people were wearing in his favorite parisian bar, le Pop'In, and throwing it on the runway).

Regarding Menkes' review, I find it weird what she is writing about cheap clothes turned into magnificent looks as a premiere in Fashion - since it is basically what MJ's been doing for years, non ? (anybody remembers that passage in Prigent's documentary with the velvet sweatshirt ?). I think she is just getting older, and is probably tired of the fashion families feuds ... And just try to find what is good about a collection first. Positivism.

I guess the inspiration from Heinecken is the collage, juxtaposition ? Or is it to be found in Heinecken's biography ?


But let's not overthink this ...