Yves Saint Laurent: Solemn and Sober

October 04 06:05:01 AM, Yahoo News

FWD201 Model walks the runway at the Yves Saint Laurent show by designer Stefano Pilati during Spring 2009 Fashion Week in Paris on Thursday, Oct. 2, 2008.(Fashion Wire Daily/Gruber)

Fashion Wire Daily - The mood got very somber and rather solemn Thursday, Oct. 2, when viewing the spring 2009 collection of Yves Saint Laurent, the first women's show presented by the house since the death of its founder.

His departure on June 1, 2008, was recalled in the all-white, mass card like invitation - whose interior read Merci Monsieur Yves Saint Laurent 1936-2008 - to the show in the Grand Palais, an occasion attended by Saint Laurent's longtime partner Pierre Berge and blond party gal muse Betty Catroux.

Sobriety extended to the cut and color of the collection; from the tear drop pattern Japanese bat wing jackets and crushed shantung, anthracite trench-coats to military culottes and metallic caged booties, worn by most models.

"I wanted an oriental element, but Orientalism as it was first seen by people in the 19th century," said designer Stefano Pilati, explaining his silhouette.

The bright tones one normally associates with YSL were pretty much absent, in a summer collection that was largely black, with hints of midnight blue, khaki and flesh.

But Pilati had the nerve to take this label somewhere new with some novel experimentations in weightless fabrics and layered sheer looks. His tailoring, whether ribbon trimmed capes or two audacious culotte/cocktails, was also admirable, even if his choice of color was a bit too downbeat.

Besides being a very talented designer, Pilati has grown into being one of fashion's great stylists. His shows are exactly and elegantly staged from the silver shade of the catwalk and silvery gray bleacher seats to the metallic, uncovered Mizzen Hut structure, built underneath the giant expanse of Grand Palais.

Sobriety was also apparent in the everything from the model's hair - a taut, peaked chignon, with hints of green and red dye - to the to the minimalist synthesizer barrage on the soundtrack.

Nothing was left to chance, just the way Yves would have liked it.

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