A master moves on

Yves Saint Laurent probably changed your life, even if you never knew it. It was he who precisely removed us from fussy clothing from the Post War period and replaced us in clean, easy clothing that allowed us to move, to work, to challenge the place in which society had put us.

Of course he did not do this alone, but he led the way. In looking at the linked photo album, I realized there was not a garment in there that you couldn’t wear now. (Well, maybe that puffy thing in the next to the last photo, but that looks like something that never got made.) I certainly wore his designs. I wore the boutique versions, to be sure, but also clothes inspired by YSL and made by others. I have to this day a tuxedo suit that will fit me again the day my hips are once more 31″.

For several weeks now I have been pondering the question of why the things we call classics are classics. One hundred years ago those things almost didn’t exist, and yet we call them classical. Almost every advice for older women encourages them to wear updated classics, by which is meant plain trousers, tailored jackets, shirts and blouses, straight skirts and some versions of pleated skirts. Add a coat dress and a sheath or tube, depending on your figure, and that’s what is called a classic wardrobe. Everything on that list was presented to us by Yves Saint Laurent. Without YSL, Geoffrey Beane and Calvin Klein would have to be chefs or florists.

I chose the above photo to represent him, because he looks in it young, strong, capable of everything and I think he’d like to look like that forever. Goodbye, Yves, and thank you for freeing us from petticoats.