fashion awareness: May 2015

Yves Saint Laurent's legacy as a king of fashion designers, who created a masterpiece of a brand, keeps growing.

Yves Saint Laurent was born in 1936 and grew up in Oran, Algeria
At 17, he left for Paris where he showed his drawings to Michel de Brunhoff - director of French Vogue - who published several of them immediately
Following a stint at fashion school, Yves Saint Laurent was introduced to Christian Dior where he worked until Dior's death in 1957
After taking over as art director for Dior, Yves Saint Laurent launched his first collection for the company, the Ligne Trapéze, that year. It was a resounding success and won him a Neiman Marcus Oscar
In 1962, after completing National Service, Yves Saint Laurent set up his own fashion house with Pierre Bergé
In 1966, he introduced le smoking - his legendary smoking suit. His other inventions include the reefer jacket (1962), the sheer blouse (1966), and the jumpsuit (1968)
In October 1998 Yves Saint Laurent showed his last ready-to-wear collection for the Rive Gauche label he had founded more than 30 years before. He carried on his haute couture until 2002
After a brief stint with Alber Elbaz as designer, in 1999 Tom Ford arrived to take control at the house. The brand entered the stratosphere where it remains today, covering perfume and menswear as well as womenswear.
At his last show, in 2002, a tearful Yves Saint Laurent took his final bow as his long-time muse, Catherine Deneuve, sang Ma Plus Belle Histoire d'Amour. Stefano Pilati, who replaced Tom Ford in 2005, continues Yves Saint Laurent's message that "dressing is a way of life".
Yves Saint Laurent died after a long period of ill health at his home in Paris on June 1, 2008. He was 71.

5 THEME #1: LE SMOCKING

5 THEME #2: COLOR

5 THEME: TRANSPARENCY

5 THEME #4: ETHNICITY

5 THEME #5: ART

Alber Elbaz Biography

Alber Elbaz is the creative director of Lanvin, one of the world's most revered fashion houses. Since his take-over in 2001, Elbaz has made the label one of the most covetable in the industry, fusing its rich heritage with his own unique twist.

Elbaz was born in Casablanca, Morocco, in 1961 and moved to Tel Aviv, Israel, when he was 10. He considers himself Israeli.
His mother was a painter and his father, a hair colourist. Alber credits his mother for teaching him the importance of modesty and humbleness.
Elbaz's love of drawing developed at an early age. "When I was either seven or eight years old, I did a sketch every day of my teacher and what she wore," he once said. "At the end of the year, I gave her the sketchbook. For me, the sketching of dresses was about fantasy and dreams. In my little room at home, I felt that I was somewhere else. In Paris, for instance."
Alber joined the Israeli Defence Force before choosing fashion design and taking up a course at Shenkar College of Textile Technology and Fashion.
In 1987, he moved to New York and began working for Geoffrey Beene where he was influenced by Beene's rejection of trends and masterful draping techniques.
Elbaz was hired as creative director of French couture house Guy Laroche in 1996, adding his own contemporary take without alienating its clientele. "I didn't forget that Guy Laroche's customers can be, like, 75-years-old and they like pink, bouclé and gold buttons," he said.
In 1998, Alber was offered a job at Yves Saint Laurent designing womens ready-to-wear. "For me, this isn't a career move, but the realisation of my life's dream," Elbaz said in a press release from YSL.
The appointment was short lived and, after the Gucci Group bought YSL Rive Gauche in 2001, Tom Ford - then Gucci's creative director - dismissed Elbaz to assume all design responsibilities himself.
Alber went onto work for Krizia in Italy but left after three months after a reported dispute with the label's founder, Mariuccia Mandelli.
In 2001 he was made creative director at Lanvin and has since become known for designs that are timeless, feminine and made in the finest of fabrics.
Elbaz adores women. "I love and respect women," he has said. "I work mostly with women. And you know, our logo for Lanvin is a mother and a daughter. I've always said, 'It's not a lion, and it's not a horse. It's a mother and a daughter.' I find the logo very emotional."
He believes it is important for designers to understand commercialism. "I think that for me commercial is not a bad word. Commercial is not the word that has to be said only by ceo's. It has to be something that is maybe the essence of design, because design has some sort of art in it and creation, but it's also some object that you have to use. There is also this pragmatic end to it."
He has won numerous accolades for his contributions to fashion design including the CFDA's 2005 International Designer award and, in 2007, he was awarded the highly prestigious Legion of Honour in Paris.
In November 2010, Elbaz designed one of the most covetable high street collaborations in fashion history - the H&M for Lanvin line. Fans queued through the night for a chance to buy pieces from the range.

STEFANO PILATI Biography

STEFANO PILATI is the head of design at Italian label Ermenegildo Zegna, and oversees its menswear line, as well as its secondary womenswear franchise - Agnona. He is also known for his eight-year tenure at Yves Saint Laurent, from 2004 until 2012, incorporating classic elegance with a modern flair.

Born in Milan in 1965, Stefano Pilati originally intended to qualify as a land surveyor and professed an early interest in architecture. "I was an unhappy child," he once told the New York Times. "With my father, everything I said or did was wrong. Everything I wore was wrong. Everywhere I wanted to go was wrong. So I began to worry that there was really something the matter with me. When I was sketching something, I didn't feel alone. Eventually, I said, "Enough - I'm going to belong to another world instead. And the fashion world looked beautiful."
He abandoned his course, which would have qualified him as a land surveyor, to undertake an internship with Nino Cerruti at the age of 17.
He cites his family amongst his early fashion influences. He created his first sketches for his sisters, inspired as he was by their fashion magazines.
His first job in fashion was at a velvet manufacturer. Within months he was designing the company's entire collections and presenting them to the ready-to-wear greats of Europe.
In 1993 he was hired by Giorgio Armani as a menswear design assistant but in 1995 he left to become the head of research and development at Prada.
The designer was promoted to assistant designer at Miu Miu in 1998, where he worked on menswear and womenswear.
He was named design director at Yves Saint Laurent in 2000, and worked under Tom Ford for four years before being appointed creative director following Ford's departure in 2004.
His inaugural must-have item was the tulip skirt he presented in 2004, which critics and women the world over were initially unconvinced by - but it went on to become a wardrobe staple.
Like Yves before him with the 'le smoking' look, Pilati has created other trademark items for YSL, namely the Muse bag he designed in 2005 which he has admitted to being reluctant to name. "Customers seem to like to ask for bags by name, but I don't really like to name my bags - they are not children or pets." The bag continues to be a bestseller, with Muse Two being brought out in 2008.
Pilati admits working under the legacy of Saint Laurent is sometimes intimidating. "Saint Laurent did everything," he told the New York Times in 2008. "You go to the YSL archives, and you feel he thought of any idea I could ever imagine. It's intimidating."
Often way ahead of his time, Pilati's designs are time and again questioned and then latterly widely copied, proving his credentials as one of the most talented and imaginative designers working today.
In 2007 Pilati conceived the idea for the first Yves Saint Laurent Manifesto. Talking of the publication, which is created by the label to celebrate the most recent collection, Pilati explained, "One of my visions for Saint Laurent is about giving back. So that even if you can't afford it, you can still pick up the essence of the message, the elements of fashion that might be considered increasingly irrelevant but remain for me its main aspects: the silhouette, the way the clothes are cut, the fabrics, a special pattern." The Manifesto now accompanies each new collection.
Pilati created the costumes for a theatre version of Harold Pinter's Betrayal, which opened at the Comedy Theatre in London in June 2011. "I was intrigued to work on this production first because of the talent involved, and then because Pinter's universe is particularly suited for the house of Saint Laurent - with its ambiance of intellectual wealth, its unapologetically ambiguous moral landscape, and its uncontrived style," he told VOGUE.COM.
On February 27 2012, Pilati announced he was stepping down from his role as Yves Saint Laurent creative director, after months of denials from the house. His next move has not yet been confirmed. "I join Paul Deneve and the house of Saint Laurent in thanking Stefano for his dedication and contribution to the story of Yves Saint Laurent," PPR chairman and ceo François-Henri Pinault said in a statement. "I personally wish him all the best."
In September 2012, he was named head of design at Italian label Ermenegildo Zegna, where he oversees menswear, as well as the brand's secondary womenswear line, Agnona.

Tom Ford Biography

Having held the helm of menswear and womenswear for Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and his eponymous line, Tom Ford has also turned his hand to designing beauty, eyewear and accessories, film production and directing, and fashion photography.

Ford was born in Austin, Texas in 1961. In 1979 he moved to New York to pursue a history of art degree at NYU. Upon arriving in the city, Ford was introduced to what the fashion industry had to offer. "This nice guy from my art history class came in and asked if I wanted to go to a party. Andy Warhol was [there], and he took us to Studio 54 - wow. Even today, I still start shaking when I hear Donna Summer because it's the music of my coming-of-age," he told Vogue. A year later, the designer dropped out of his degree in favour of an acting stint in California.

Having saved money working through his time as an actor, he enrolled at Parson's school of design to study architecture but quickly switched to fashion. Upon graduation, Ford was employed by Cathy Hardwick as a design assistant. It was during his time at the company that the designer met his husband, the then-editor of Women's Wear Daily ,Richard Buckley, whom he married in 2014 following a 27-year relationship.

In 1988, Ford was offered a job as design director at Remy Ellis, helmed at the time by Marc Jacobs. Following this, the designer's career with Gucci began, moving to Italy after Dawn Mello, then-creative director of the company in 1990. Ford took over from Mello as creative director in 1994. By 1999, the designer had made Gucci worth $4.3 billion (£2.2), making it one of the largest and most profitable luxury brands in the world. After the Gucci Group bought Yves Saint Laurent under Ford's instruction, the designer went on to act as creative and communications director of the brand alongside his position at Gucci.

During his tenure at the luxury group, Ford also added Sergio Rossi, Bottega Veneta and Balenciaga to the Gucci group's roster. When holding company Pinault-Printemps-Redoute expressed interest in buying a controlling stake of the Gucci group in 2003, the designer announced that if it were to happen he would be forced to leave over conflict surrounding creative control. PPR's bid was inevitable, securing 68 percent by the end of the year. Ford confirmed his departure, leaving at the end of his contract the following year.

Ford took a break from fashion and shifted his attention to his directorial career, signing with CAA talent agent Byron Lourd. After founding his own film company, FADE TO BLACK, in 2005, he released the well-received filmA Single Man, in 2009, based on the novel of the same name by Christopher Isherwood. Premiering first at the Venice Film Festival and later in the US, the film starred Colin Firth, who was nominated for an Academy Award, Golden Globe, Independent Spirit Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for his role in the film. He went on to win the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

The conception of the Tom Ford brand began in 2004, the year after he departed from the Gucci group, starting with the launch of a cosmetics and fragrance line in partnership with Estee Lauder and former Gucci CEO Domenico de Sole. An optical and sunglasses range with the Marcolin group ensued but it wasn't until a year later that Ford marked his first foray into design under his own name.

In collaboration with Ermenegildo Zegna, the fashion designer launched a range of luxury menswear, including suits, accessories and shoes in 2006. As a result of its success, he opened his two-storey flagship store a year later, modelled after his London townhouse in New York's Madison Avenue. Partnerships with luxury department stores Daslu and Villa Moda kick-started the 2007 announcement that the Tom Ford brand would see an international expansion - with flagships in London, Milan, LA and Hawaii over the succeeding three years.

In 2010 Ford marked his return to womenswear design with an intimate presentation at his Madison Avenue flagship store with a coterie of attendees such as Beyoncé Knowles, Daphne Guinness and Lauren Hutton. The public and the rest of the fashion industry were kept on tenterhooks for two months to see the collection in an exclusive feature in American Vogue.The following collection was moved to London Fashion Week, but shown privately in a showroom. In 2013 Ford opened his collections to a wider selection of press, bloggers and photographers, joining the London Fashion Week official schedule and showing his menswear for the first time at London Collections: Men.

The same year, the designer was also featured in Jay-Z's song Tom Ford from the Magna Carta Holy Grail album and collaborated with Justin Timberlake on his cover art and music video for song Suit & Tie, affirming his position as an affluential mega brand.

Ford took an interest in photography from the very beginning of his career with his sensuous Gucci adverts produced with Carine Roitfeld and the 2000 adverts for YSL Opium perfume, shot by Stephen Meisel and banned from publication in the UK. Recently, he has shot the cover of NumeroRussia's March 2014 edition and an editorial forCR Fashion Book's summer 2014 edition alongside his Tom Ford beauty and mainline campaign for spring 2014.

Ford has gathered recognition throughout his career spanning 28 years, collecting accolades such as the CDFA International award, Board of Directors Special Tribute and 2008 Designer of the year, named in the 2011Timetop 100 list of influential people, four VH-1 /VogueFashion Awards, two ACE awards from the US Accessory Council,GQman of the year award in 2000, the Andre Leon Talley Lifetime Achievement Award from the Savannah College of Art and Design and was nominated for a BFA Designer Brand award in 2012.

The designer currently resides in his Los Angeles, London and Santa Fe with his husband Richard Buckley and their son Alexander John Buckley Ford.

5 THEME #1: LE SMOCKING

Alberz Elbaz