Saying farewell to a fashion icon

PARIS: The sharp black suits, upswept chignons and click-clack of high heels could have been the opening steps of an Yves Saint Laurent fashion show. But instead of glossy red lips, there were red-rimmed eyes as the Parisian worlds of fashion, art and politics turned out to say farewell Thursday to the towering creative figure of 20th-century style.

The somber funeral in the Église Saint-Roch - a church dedicated to artists since Louis XIV laid the first stone - had splashes of red. Catherine Deneuve, fighting back tears as she arrived with a symbolic bouquet of wheat sheaves, was wearing the scarlet crystal heart that was a fetish object in every YSL collection for 40 years.

There were the red roses in the shape of a heart, labeled "Pierre" for Pierre Bergé - Saint Laurent's partner for 50 years. He gave a moving address, speaking tenderly to the coffin and recounting moments of love, anguish and pride that reduced the most sophisticated of Parisians to tears and raised an ovation from the crowds watching on a satellite screen outside.

Homage came from the mighty - President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, Carla, a former model for YSL - to the humble: a button-sewer who clung to the barricades to catch a glimpse of the cortège.

But it was above all a reunion of a fashion family, who came together, as the actress Marisa Berenson said, recalling the 1970s, to remember "that whole period when we were young and everything was free."

"Yves was such an elegant person with such a gentle soul," Berenson said, explaining how the designer's first foray into fashion was with her grandmother, Elsa Schiaparelli.

Betty Catroux, with her slim, boyish figure the mirror image of her friend Yves, sat among the family - Saint Laurent's 95-year-old mother, Lucienne, who walked stoutly down the aisle on her cane, supported by her daughters. Loulou de la Falaise, the free Bohemian spirit who was the creative counterpoint to Catroux's masculine rigor, hid under a chic black hat, while the actress Arielle Dombasle made her entrance with a giant Jackie Kennedy-style pill box.

Designers paying homage were led by the distinguished, white-haired Hubert de Givenchy, who said tearfully: "We are all here for him." Marc Jacobs, who had flown overnight from New York, said simply: "He's the person who taught me everything I know."

Alber Elbaz, who was the first to take over YSL ready-to-wear but later moved to Lanvin, sat in a group with John Galliano, Christian Lacroix and Jean-Paul Gaultier, who said after the ceremony that because Bergé had revealed that he and Saint Laurent had been recently "married" in a civil union made the address more heart-rending.

Other designers - the present YSL designer, Stefano Pilati; Sonia Rykiel; Riccardo Tisci of Givenchy; Valentino; Vivienne Westwood - were scattered through the nave in a complex seating arrangement worthy of the court of Versailles.

François Pinault, his wife, Maryvonne, and their son François-Henri, current owners of the YSL brand, sat in the same row as Bernard Arnault and his wife, Hélène, divided by a bitter history of conflict and the church's aisle.

Since Bergé was a founding member of the "gauche caviar," or "Champagne socialists," the Byzantine placements included Frédéric Mitterrand, a cultural polymath from the former president's dynasty, and Bernadette Chirac, from the more recent presidential regime. Then there were leftist intellectuals and artists, including François-Marie Banier, acting as unofficial photographer, and the decorator Jacques Grange, who wiped away a tear as the voice of Jacques Brel followed the soaring sound of Maria Callas and Mozart's Requiem to bring proceedings to a close.

Full military honors were held outside the church in recognition of Saint Laurent's position as a grand officer of the Légion d'Honneur.

That medal was placed on a table at the end of the nave, where a forest of white lilies and bushes of sweet-smelling jasmine gave a perfume of the Jardin Majorelle in Marrakesh, Morocco, restored by Saint Laurent and Bergé in the honeymoon period of their relationship, and where the couturier's ashes will be kept.

The multitude of floral tributes included offerings from the houses of Balenciaga, Chanel and Dior, as well as the Opéra de France, as a reminder of Saint Laurent's other role as a formidable costume designer.

The service opened with a recording of Saint Laurent's replies to the famous "Proust Questionnaire." In his homily, Father Roland Letteron referred to the tremulous Proustian nerves of the designer.

Everybody seemed to have private memories of a man who only later became a myth.

Contemporary art boom brings opportunities, and challenges, for insurers

More from Culture:

• Graffiti finds its place in contemporary art
• Younger Chinese artists struggle to excite buyers
• Contemporary art's

Search

Subscriptions
Sign Up  |  Manage