As we were given the challenge to create a collection titled as Yves Saint Laurent & I, I aimed to interpret what I’ve captured as the essence of Yves as a creative genie, as well as from the extraordinary personality he was. This is my interpretation of the his impressive body of work and an homage to his battle with mental breakdowns, severe depression, intense fatigue and drug abuse.

The suit jacket in the base on which I developed and draw the lines in the collection. Saint Laurent was first to introduce the tuxedo in womenswear fashion. Revolutionary at that time. He embraced powerful feminine aesthetics inspired by men’s tailoring. The garments are constructed in the classical men’s tailoring fabrics woven in parallel black and white lines. I placed the lines in a way that they lose their direction, just as Laurent was loosing his orientation in few senses of the word. Through the day he would stay true to the role of a fashion designer, however he would let himself to get lost in the depths of the nightlife.

The silhouettes are shaped following the principle of the contrast of the night and day. The O silhouette borrowed from the rays of the sun signifies the awakening and the rise of Yves role as a designer. This metaphors is translated into pleated texture taking over a oversized suit jacket. The moon that raises on the corset of a one piece suit signifies Yves endless exploration of his nocturnal identities. 

Black & white with subtle accents of red is the range of the color palette in all of the pieces in the collection. The union of the  two main colors speaks about the thin line and the edge between the two worlds in which  Yves was living. The exhausting dispute between the day and the night, life and death and the virtuous and promiscuous. The red color is bringing the sense of morbidity and pessimism the arises from this constant battle. Texture

Some solid and shiny, and some translucent and vague, the surfaces of the fabrics selected  for the collection simbolize my perspective of Yves  feeling of imprisonment in the twilight of the day and the night. I conveyed this idea as handcuffs for handles of the bags, amongst other metallic details and mechanisms I implemented in design of the bags…