Yves Saint Laurent: The Movie

The Film of Yves Saint Laurent has already became a huge success in France making profit over 10 million euros. The movie about the legendary French designer directed by Jalil Lespert. It follows the life and career of the great fashion designer from the early steps in Dior, his acquaintance with his comrade Pierre Berger with whom he built his empire YSL, the first serious crisis with his manic depression when enlisted to serve the army in 1960, the great recognition, the revolution brought in women’s fashion.

It looks like 2015 is going to be Yves Saint Laurent‘s turn to be immortalized on the big screen. There will be two films coming out about the life of this iconic French designer who died in 2008, despite one facing criticism from the late designer’s close companion and business partner, Pierre Bergé. The businessman – who was co-founder of the iconic house – has said that he wants to try to “ban” production of the second movie.

From Karl Lagerfeld in his Studio 54 disco days to the genesis of “le smoking”, the Yves Saint Laurent film is bursting at the seams with key moments from fashion history. But spare a thought for the woman who had to ensure that every single piece of the clothing in the film was suitably iconic: costume designer Madeline Fontaine.

Most of the pieces in the film were originals – including the famous “le smoking” tuxedo jackets and the Mondrian dress – on loan from the Yves Saint Laurent

Foundation. Other original pieces came from Saint Laurent’s time at Dior, while more still were created to fit the lead actors. “It was like there were two productions taking place at the same time,” says Fontaine: “The first was the production of the costumes, as you would for any other film; the second was working on the costumes from the YSL collection.”

The first film- which has the backing of Bergé – is to be  directed by Jalil Lespert and will star French actor Pierre Niney as the late designer. Bergé has previously commented on the strong resemblance Niney has to his former companion, revealing that he almost greeted him: “Welcome Yves”.

You already  have to know a lot about Yves Saint Laurent and his friends to understand the story, otherwise you have no clue who is who and what all happens. Like the reason YSL and Karl Lagerfeld broke up as friends: YSL started a love-affair with Lagerfeld’s lover Jacques de Bascher. The movie also says a lot about Pierre Berge, who lived in the shadow of YSL and obviously had a hard time living & working with him.

The movie reveals details about YSL’s life, only Pierre Berge knew about and probably felt the need to share with the world. I don’t know what these revelations add to the legacy of YSL. It feels like Berge is still frustrated about certain events and the fact YSL couldn’t function without him and is now seeking recognition for his part in the history of YSL.

For Pierre Bergé, Saint Laurent’s former partner, who runs the YSL Foundation, “defending the image of the house of Yves Saint Laurent was the most important thing”, says Fontaine. The same was true of Dior. So, for the many fashion-show scenes, “he really did not want us to recreate any costumes. Of course, we could not make any alterations to the original pieces either, so we had to cast the models for the fashion show scenes in a very unusual way, by finding models that would fit the dresses. Afterwards, we had to build shoes that fitted them.

The atmosphere during fittings was suitably reverential: “We were all wearing white gloves when we touched the pieces, when we were dressing the models. It was like a museum!”



Still, in the end, the production team had to recreate some of the looks. “Some of the key pieces were missing,” says Fontaine. “The Dior wedding dress [Saint Laurent muse] Victoire Doutreleau wore on the cover of Paris Match in 1958, for example, wasn’t there, so we found one in a flea market and recreated it. We just did it ­– we had to, to finish the film; we were running out of time. In the end, Dior were happy –­ they have the dress now.”

As for the costumes created from scratch, Fontaine took a lot of inspiration from the pictures in Alicia Drake’s book The Beautiful Fall, about the competitive relationship between Saint Laurent and Lagerfeld. “At the time, Karl Lagerfeld and his coterie considered themselves fashion idols – they were proud of themselves; they were playing with elegance, showing off, wearing velvet, broaches, jewellery, glasses. Lagerfeld always wore something special, a detail, to show that he was different. I don’t think he has changed, although when he was younger he was much more experimental.”
The results are suitably decadent – particularly this scene, in which another of Saint Laurent’s muses, Betty Catroux, models “le smoking” in what looks like a sharp-suited, polysexual 1970s orgy, before Saint Laurent’s iconic nude portrait is recreated. Watch it and you’ll agree: it was worth the faff.
• Yves Saint Laurent will be in cinemas on 21 March in the UK and 25 June in the US.