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Tom Ford for YSL Menswear
Written by: Godfrey Deeny
Photos by Gruber-FWD
Click on image to see bigger photo or to send as a postcard.
Paris, Jul 1, 2001/ FWD/ --- History turned full circle Sunday in Paris when Tom Ford staged the Yves
Saint Laurent spring/summer men’s collection in the Paris Bourse, the site that was a great commercial
triumph for Yves a decade ago when his house was first launched on the Paris market.
Ford gave the past a clever spin, reinterpreting the Saint Laurent oeuvre with a slick, edgy, impeccable
tailored collection, where most of the clothes – and models – were black.
"When you look back there’s not
that many men’s references in Saint Laurent, most of them are women. When I think about Saint Laurent I think
of images of beautiful black women in his great clothes. So I wanted to take that idea but use it for men,"
Ford told FWD backstage after the show.
Though you couldn’t tell it from the soundtrack, the collection echoed British two-tone bands like The
Specials and Madness with its porkpie hats, skinny suits and shiny fabrics.
Except, this being Saint Laurent, the fabrics and finish were pretty dazzling.
His suits were highly fitted though they didn’t appear constricting,
and his trouser leg showed a little ankle – an important trend this season.
Nearly all the suits were of pure silk, as were the wonderfully subtle check iridescent shirts.
The shoes were something else, long loafers of alligator and crocodile, where the principal parts of the shoes
were made of different sections of the reptiles’ skins.
The collection also revamped several familiar YSL looks,
for instance, Yves’ famed safari jacket, which Tom sent out in distressed ecru leather combined with faded jeans
and those great loafers.
Leather was another big success, in particular an ecru trench with raglan sleeves and
some great laser-cut shirt-jackets that just cried out luxe.
But in a way, the most memorable message was in the choice of models.
That too was in keeping with the spirit
of Saint Laurent, the first designer to feature black women prominently in his advertising.
"We wanted an
ethnically mixed cast of models and it’s actually pretty hard to find a lot of black men models in today’s
fashion industry. So we had to do an open casting and track down all sorts of people," explained Ford.
YSL even went so far as to find agencies and legal papers for the catwalkers. It worked impeccably.
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