Yves Saint Laurent Spring 2012 Review
Photos: Imaxtree
Looks from the Yves Saint Laurent Spring 2012 show
Show: Yves Saint Laurent
Hair: Guido Palau
Makeup: Pat McGrath
Accessories: Block-heel shoes with insets of gold, gold chain-belts
Overall takeaway: Safe, but chic. And it's the latter that women really care about.
Yves Saint Laurent abandoned the style leap-frog of the fashion whorl in the eighties in favor of what he termed "The perfection of my art." Has Stefano Pilati come to the same conclusion? Certainly, his Spring '12 collection for Yves Saint Laurent dove-tails perfectly into the past two collections for the house, shown in the same venue and with the same overriding theme. That theme is: clothes women can wear, and no doubt will want to.
It's difficult, in that respect, to pinpoint a theme at YSL. After a predominantly black fall collection, Stefano Pilati was feeling color, mixing rich green with teal, purple, magenta and French navy for a sophisticated dark but not monochrome palette. Decoration was stripped to the barest of minimum, bar the last two looks dotted with beaded paisley motifs, a glittering reappropriation of YSL peasant-chic. There were a few hints at that elsewhere, in the gathered bell cuffs for instance, the glittering medallion belts and the scarves wrapped high on the chest. But the pencil skirts and easy fitting suits and coats harked back to Saint Laurent's founding collection back in 1962. The house came full circle.
This collection didn't quite ring the fashion changes the world expected considering the swirling rumor about the security (or otherwise) of Stefano Pilati's position at the house. One couldn't help but think of the parallels between this show and that opening Saint Laurent couture back in 1962. That collection was criticized in the press for promoting chic over shock, and for offering women a wardrobe rather than causing the earth to move. Fifty years later, Stefano Pilati did the same.
SEE THE SPRING 2012 RUNWAY COLLECTIONS
