“Filled with books, photos, fabric swatches, and a wandering French bulldog, Yves Saint Laurent’s studio was a wonderfully chaotic and creative space. Fashion historian Jéromine Savignon’s new book opens the door into this magical world.” –W Magazine
The name of Yves Saint Laurent, one of the great fashion designers of the twentieth century, evokes the now-iconic looks he helped popularize as part of the modern woman's wardrobe: the Le Smoking tuxedo jacket, the pea coat, the Mondrian dress, the jumpsuit. But seven years after Saint Laurent's death, the man himself remains an enigma and a source of fascination (two Yves Saint Laurent biopics were released in 2014). In Yves Saint Laurent's Studio: Mirror and Secrets, the first book to be published by the Fondation Pierre Bergé with Yves Saint Laurent, fashion historian Jérômine Savignon invites the reader into the designer's studio, revealing Saint Laurent's approach to fashion and design. Illustrated with more than 40 previously unpublished photographs, this volume offers a fresh, behind-the-scenes glimpse at the work of this iconic fashion designer.
A precocious talent, Yves Saint Laurent (1936–2008) started work at the venerable fashion house of Christian Dior at the age of 18. He started his own design house in 1961 with his partner Pierre Bergé. Saint Laurent was one of the first designers to hire nonwhite models, and the first to lend his name to a ready-to-wear line while maintaining his haute couture business. He became the first designer to be honored with a Costume Institute retrospective at The Metropolitan Museum of Art during his lifetime, with a 1983 show organized by Diana Vreeland, who called him the "Pied Piper of fashion," because "whatever he does, women of all ages, from all over the world, follow."
Featured image, captioned "July 1977, in the studio on Avenue Marceau, Yves Saint Laurent puts a finishing touch to a model for the 'Chinese' haute couture collection shortly before the show," is reproduced from Yves Saint Laurent's Studio: Mirror and Secrets. Photograph Guy Marineau.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Women's Wear Daily
Laure Guilbault
In “Yves Saint Laurent’s Studio — Mirror and Secrets,” fashion historian Jéromine Savignon follows the process behind the designer’s couture collections. Published by Actes Sud, the book comes in both French and in English, and contains around 40 unreleased images — including sketches and photographs of the designer at work in various studios — along with quotes from the designer Pierre Bergé. Photographers include Marc Riboud, Jeanloup Sieff and François-Marie Banier.
The author divides the designer’s creation process into five acts. “The process is a dogged pursuit of perfection in an almost mute effervescence,” according to Savignon.
W
Karin Nelson
Filled with books, photos, fabric swatches, and a wandering French bulldog, Yves Saint Laurent’s studio was a wonderfully chaotic and creative space. Fashion historian Jéromine Savignon’s new book (Actes Sud) opens the door into this magical world with some 40 unreleased images, including sketches and photographs of the master at work.
Surface Magazine
Aileen Kwun
Presented in a modest pocket-sized hard-cover, Yves Saint Laurent's Studio: Mirrors and secrets (Actes Sud) collects intimate snapshots of Saint Laurent the man at work in his storied Paris studio on Avenue Marceau. Archival Photos depict a creative environment in artful and productive states of disarray, filled with sketches, assistants, fabric rolls, and plenty of cigarettes. “I couldn’t live without my gypsy atmosphere… I hate a room that looks deserted and sanctified,” reads one of the book’s many quotes from the designer. “I like a room to be completely anonymous, like a hotel room, or a reflection of a person’s most intimate life.” Remembrances from passerby, friends and colleagues over the years, including an essay by fashion historian and author Jeromine Savignon, further paint a colorful oral history of the time and space.
The Midwest Book Review
Margaret Lane
Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, the text is impressively informed and informative, the photography inherently interesting, and taken as a whole, "Yves Saint Laurent's Studio: Mirror and Secrets" will prove to be an enduringly popular addition to community and academic library Fashion History reference collections in general, and the supplemental studies reading lists for students of the life and work of Yves Sain Laurent in particular.
STATUS: Out of stock
Temporarily out of stock pending additional inventory.
In Yves Saint Laurent's Studio: Mirror and Secrets, fashion historian Jérômine Savignon writes of the designer, "He once wrote, in a movingly introspective moment: 'I love above all else the rigor, the simplicity and the beauty of the classical. But my imagination, my pronounced gifts for invention, sometimes lead me towards the baroque, towards strangeness. That is also what keeps me from sterility, from becoming closed in. It’s the secret of my youth, this absolute eclecticism that governs my life. It is said that artists see the world with the eyes of a child. I think that, in spite of all the wisdom that is the Goal of my life, I shall continue to see life with the eyes of a child, my life, but most of all my work.' These few words say it all." Featured photograph, by Guy Marineau, is captioned, "The couturier at work in 1976, inspired perhaps by a Marlene Dietrich lookalike." continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 4 x 7.75 in. / 142 pgs / 40 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $24.95 LIST PRICE: CANADA $33.95 GBP £21.99 ISBN: 9782330034115 PUBLISHER: Actes Sud/Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent AVAILABLE: 3/24/2015 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: Out of stock TERRITORY: WORLD excl UK FR BE CH
Published by Actes Sud/Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent. Text by Jérômine Savignon.
“Filled with books, photos, fabric swatches, and a wandering French bulldog, Yves Saint Laurent’s studio was a wonderfully chaotic and creative space. Fashion historian Jéromine Savignon’s new book opens the door into this magical world.” –W Magazine
The name of Yves Saint Laurent, one of the great fashion designers of the twentieth century, evokes the now-iconic looks he helped popularize as part of the modern woman's wardrobe: the Le Smoking tuxedo jacket, the pea coat, the Mondrian dress, the jumpsuit. But seven years after Saint Laurent's death, the man himself remains an enigma and a source of fascination (two Yves Saint Laurent biopics were released in 2014). In Yves Saint Laurent's Studio: Mirror and Secrets, the first book to be published by the Fondation Pierre Bergé with Yves Saint Laurent, fashion historian Jérômine Savignon invites the reader into the designer's studio, revealing Saint Laurent's approach to fashion and design. Illustrated with more than 40 previously unpublished photographs, this volume offers a fresh, behind-the-scenes glimpse at the work of this iconic fashion designer.
A precocious talent, Yves Saint Laurent (1936–2008) started work at the venerable fashion house of Christian Dior at the age of 18. He started his own design house in 1961 with his partner Pierre Bergé. Saint Laurent was one of the first designers to hire nonwhite models, and the first to lend his name to a ready-to-wear line while maintaining his haute couture business. He became the first designer to be honored with a Costume Institute retrospective at The Metropolitan Museum of Art during his lifetime, with a 1983 show organized by Diana Vreeland, who called him the "Pied Piper of fashion," because "whatever he does, women of all ages, from all over the world, follow."
