It's really simple. Hedi Slimane has revived the Saint Laurent label in his own image. A Skinny, Androgyne, Skimpy, and for Fall 2015, Slutty woman who feels more like a Girl but dresses like Boy! That's a lot to digest in one sitting, but the formula is actually quite easy to comprehend. Yes, Slimane has his detractors, Critical and elsewhere, but the near double digit increases in sales would provide a picture to those naysayers that would surely put them in their place and quiet their wagging tongues.
Again, This isn't rocket science, it isn't even anything approaching the mentally taxing, Slimane has hit upon a style that thankfully, suits him and the archives of YSL. Each season he seems to be mining those archives and contextualizing them in his own vernacular which thusly, updates the old Hoary Chestnuts of YSL Yore and gives them a Freedom and Modernity that was altogether alien to the late Maestro of Couture. Fall 2015 saw him push the boundaries to their breaking point, it would seem, with a Streetwalker bent to the clothes that parallels what Saint Laurent did back in his day by Giving a Street wear bent to his Couture and faced the same associations with the Demimonde and Les Belles de Jour!
It was a risky gambit, one that could have come off Tacky and more detrimentally, Cheap. Slimane worked both associations without fear or concern to whether they actually did descend to either of those Adjectives. Courageous, No? This season sees the Rough and Tumble, Punky days of the 80's getting their due, and completes the course through the decades that Slimane has seemed to be on recently, working through the 60's and 70's now, he's arrived at the Debauched 80's! The highlights of this season were the ones that hewed closest to the Saint Laurent Lexicon, refreshed in the Slimane Patois... A Silver Leather Peacoat cut to Perfection... The Black Snakeskin Trench...The Beaded Point d'Esprit blouse under a Black Le Smoking... and much more, those were just a few of the best. When paired with Hooker chic ripped pantyhose and much baring of nipples, the mood was complete!
Slimane is quite Masterful in his approach at Saint Laurent, he has desecrated all the iconic imagery of Yves, yet rebuilt it, Steve Austin/Jamie Sommers-Style into a $6 Billion dollar temple of Indulgence and "I Don't Give A Good Fuck" Attitude. It's working, and as long as he can continue to spin gold out of the dried straw of the old codes of the house, he is sure to continue performing fashion magic closely akin to Alchemy.
That's All.
Bye4Now!
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