The Saint Laurent attitude: style is paramount, fashioned from leather, perfecto jackets and masterfully tailored bomber jackets over white poplin shirts styled as blouses, with giant lavallière ties setting the tone. “The Saint Laurent woman is both heroine and classic, singular and multifaceted. She moves through contrasting worlds: black leather-clad princesses à la mapplethorpe, adorned with crown jewels; enigmatic women asserting their power in rive gauche silhouettes, with flowing fabrics and bold colors; while descendants of the Duchess of Guermantes or John Singer Sargent's famed “Madame X” trade their silks for technical textiles.” Nothing harsh, everything seems brushed in a sunlit, instinctive way.Following the black and white checkered patterns, the trench coats seem to be cut from large sails crossing the Atlantic. As for the evening dresses, they evoke the shirts worn by the Queen in the 18th century: those in which Marie Antoinette asserted her emancipation – and which caused a scandal. They take flight on a poised, unrestrained and moving body. The palette of colours, from the most acidic to the most fawn, sets no limits, playing an airy score in a fireworks display of bronze and flaming orange.
“I'm not passing judgement, just chronicling,” assured John Sargent, whose exhibition “Éblouir Paris” (Dazzling Paris) has just opened at the Musée d'Orsay. And so it goes with this show, hand-stitched by Bureau Betak, which has elevated a style and a belief to new heights, projecting a story that is both new and timeless. A world where America, Africa, Asia and Europe celebrate elective affinities before a spellbound audience, from Nadia Herzigova to Jean Paul Gaultier and Madonna, who also seem to have been freed from all constraints.
L.B.
