YVES SAINT LAURENT dies at 71

We at VagaBond NYC are saddened by the loss of one of the last great French Couturier's, YVES SAINT LAURENT. He leaves behind quite an important and long legacy and will be remebered as one of the most influential designers of the twentieth century. His designs, esp. in the 60's & 70's, were explosive when it came to color, shape, and most importantly, exoticism. He was one of the first to put women in pant-suits, and he brought safari, uniform dressing, tuxedo & sheer looks to the forefront of high-fashion. He was also the first(like many designers do today, esp. Gaultier & Galliano) to be boldly inspired by cultures & his travels, which he would then put in his own collection with little re-interpretation. Which is to say that he would do this explicitly. Nothing he studied became derrivative, and the world would thus be seduced by the YSL gypsy, Russian ballerina or most importantly, the French ingenue. YSL brought pret-a-porter to the mainstream not because he simply wanted to make more money, but primarily because of his love for women, and how he understood the needs of modern life.

We adore Stefano Pillati, and we feel like the last YSL show, fall'08, was a brilliant homage to YSL and find it uncanny that the LCD Soundsystem song played during the show repeats the verse "when someone great is gone," over & over again.