Yves Saint Laurent Mens F/W 12.13 Paris

[mikeijames]

they say fear stimulates the imagination and perhaps all those rumors about raf replacing him at ysl really got pilati's juices flowing. i love this side of pilati. it's more raf that raf even gave us at jil sander. it's dark. it's intellectual. it's uncomfortable. yet it still has that refinement and that polish that reminds you it's ysl. we haven't seen this edgy side of yves saint laurent since fall/winter 2008 and even then he shied away from it once he got to the menswear. let's hope this is the beginning of pilati getting his stride back at the house.

 

[valliaddict]

This is hands down the best collection of the season!! I would wear everything, and I think Pilati has gotten his stride back these past few seasons with both menswear & womenswear. Great job.

 

[flickeringfox]

amazing collection, the leather pieces are simply gorgeous

 

[balmain1914]

kids wearing YSL. that's all.

 

[Street_a_Licious]

i sometimes wonder if Pilati is feeling a little suicidal. must be all that black and especially the razorblade on that sweater.

i was surprisingly down with the first half of the collection, the cuts were sharp and on point, but then it kinda lost me with those leather accented sweaters (not saying those never work, but right here, they don't) and those pleated front pants. ew.

and since the shoes with the huge as$ buckle didn't work on the women's show, men are getting the same treatment. seriously, my dad has a pair of shoes with such a huge buckle, BACK FROM THE 90s, and i hated them ever since he bought them. i ain't gonna start liking them NOW.

 

[lemeray]

Definitely my favourite! oooft the shoes!

 

[BerlinRocks]

i have a yohji pant that look like those (wool+leather & large legs) ...
but LOOOOOVE all this collection ...
unfortunately not sure I'll be able to buy those high rocket price items ...
will defenitely custom my church mocassin with metal. that looks gorgeous.

(what is going on with leather this season? it's on EVERY part of the body!)

 

[Flashbang]

Revisiting this flawless collection

 

[eugenius]

Flashbang, I was just looking at this collection last night--I was going to add shots of the black shoes w/ silver hardware to the recent Outfit Look-Alikes thread.

Yeah, with the exception of, maybe, that black & white razor blade piece, "flawless" pretty much sums up this collection. Everything you'd want to see from a solid menswear collection at the luxury-goods level is here. Excellent tailoring? Check. Clean lines? Check. Fabrics? Check. Design? Check. I can't even begin to imagine the cost of those coats.

I never really paid much attention to Pilati's prior menswear chez YSL. This makes me want to go back and see if I might've missed something.

 

[GIVENCHYlover]

^ Yeah, his best collection so far. Perfect cuts and fabrics.

 

[dior_couture1245]

I never really paid much attention to Pilati's prior menswear chez YSL. This makes me want to go back and see if I might've missed something.

You should definitely look back to his earlier men's collections for the house! They were really fabulous. I think what I loved about his earlier collections for YSL men's and women's was a real sense of a naughty bourgeois character - sort of droll and fussy. There was a grown-up nonchalance, as well, that was so attractive. For his men's collections, I particular loved Fall/Winter 2005 and Spring/Summer 2007.

I actually didn't care for his menswear later at the house (or his women's collections, for that matter...I stopped caring for Pilati/YSL around 2009), and this collection is no exception. It's too "fashion" and a little too self-serious "arty."

 

[Zazie]

Still can't believe they gave *this* away for a bunch of sequined grunge boys..

 

[HeatherAnne]

I've always thought Pilati is best when he does the femme fatale thing for women, and this collection just reminds me that he does the homme fatale with equal brilliance.

Sleek, mysterious, sexy. Thanks for the bump Flashbang, loved revisiting this one.

 

[Pricciao]

Still can't believe they gave *this* away for a bunch of sequined grunge boys..

and the sale ironically raised like a rocket, it's kind of sad.

 

[eugenius]

It's too "fashion" and a little too self-serious "arty."

..which is exactly what I want to see, esp. from a top-tier design house..not, for example, another cardigan worn with a zebra-print t-shirt, nuthugger blue jeans and a $500 safety-pin, which is what comes to mind when I think of the new YSL in 2014.

 

[Kanzai]

Incredible collection of Pilati but smh underrated, when he's good, he's just f*cking great. Back when the YSL men were cool LOL.

I feel like these are what Haider is aiming for with his TF.

 

[Lola701]

It’s a pity that Hedi and management « killed » the collection. Indeed, probably one of Pilati’s best. His sexiest for sure and one of my favorite menswear from him at YSL and elsewhere.

 

[eugenius]

Why did his menswear at YSL not pick up much, if any, traction? At that time, designer menswear was having a moment, but it seems like the powers-that-be at YSL just didn’t promote it and run with it (and, most likely, never actually produced it for the stores…but I don’t know.)

I think his YSL menswear would’ve made sense next to what Prada & Dries were doing at that time. But now, those three bands couldn’t be farther apart nowadays. Le sigh.

 

[Lola701]

Why did his menswear at YSL not pick up much, if any, traction? At that time, designer menswear was having a moment, but it seems like the powers-that-be at YSL just didn’t promote it and run with it (and, most likely, never actually produced it for the stores…but I don’t know.)

I think his YSL menswear would’ve made sense next to what Prada & Dries were doing at that time. But now, those three bands couldn’t be farther apart nowadays. Le sigh.

His menswear picked up in the early days. Between 2005 and 2009 it really developed. The clientele was very sartorial in the beginning. Some Art directors from the Parisian scene and artists were into his stuff. The fashion crowd and stores really started to pick up when he did the oversized silhouette and one season he did a painters inspired collection around the same time he redesigned the stores.

The problem was that at some point the accessories really picked up. They became huge for men and women and at some point the collections weren’t as successful. He introduced Edition 24 for men and women that was priced more sensibly and was almost like his permanent collection but on the flip side, his runway shows weren’t received warmly and department stores preferred to concentrate on the best selling accessories.

By the time this collection was released (it was also slightly the same issue in womenswear), the hype was already gone. The team already knew he wasn’t renewing anyway.
I don’t even think department stores placed huge orders. If I remember well the blade sweater had a moment but that’s it. Huge orders weren’t placed on the FW12 men and women.
If I got my years right too, I think Valerie Hermann left YSL the year before, Paul Deneve joined. So when Hedi joined, he went really fast to establish his Saint Laurent.