Loulou de la Falaise, Muse to Yves Saint Laurent Dies at 63

A Muse is Gone...

On Saturday, one of the most stylish women in the world, Loulou de la Falaise, passed away. de la Falaise was, as we all know, Yves Saint Laurent's muse, creative partner and friend. She was always by his side, at work or play during all of his glorious years. Her death was announced by none other than the Yves Saint Laurent-Pierre Berge Foundation. Cause of death was not given. She was only 63 years old.

Perfect Three: Loulou de la Falaise, right, with Yves Saint Laurent and Betty Catroux at the opening of Saint Laurent’s first London boutique in 1969.

Loulou de la Falaise was born to an Anglo-Irish fashion model and a French marquis. Known for her unique Boho Aristocratic Chic style, combining her love of bright colors and lots of chunky accessories. She was a risk taker when it came to fashion. Only de la Falaise could throw on a impeccably tailored Yves Saint Laurent Haute Couture jacket under a brighty colored blouse, high-waisted French sailor pants and THIRTY multi-colored bracelets, plus a scarf around her head--and make it look effortless.

Harem Bride: Speaking of being a Fashion Risk-taker--take a look at the photo above: It's Loulou at her wedding to French writer Thadee Klossowski de Rola (her second husband). She wore a white, red with gold trim harem ensemble topped off with an incredible feathered and be-jeweled turban--all from Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche.

Loulou de la Falaise, Yves Saint Laurent and Betty Catroux

She began working for Saint Laurent around 1972, designing accessories. She remained with the house until around 2000, after the sale of the brand’s ready-to-wear and perfume operations to Gucci Group. Saint Laurent retired in 2002. It is said that Loulou inspired YSL to create his famous tuxedo for women, Le Smoking, as well as his scandal-causing transparent blouses.

Party Days: Marina Schiano, Loulou de la Falaise and Yves Saint Laurent at the launch of Yves Saint Laurent’s Opium fragrance in 1978. The party took place on a 350-foot boat — dubbed “The Peking” — in downtown New York, for which 800 invitations were printed and hand-delivered. It was estimated to cost $100,000, but sources estimated that it was closer to $250,000.

Iconoclastic Style: Loulou de la Falaise

Ms. de la Falaise started her own ready-to-wear line in 2002, same year YSL retired. She had two Loulou de la Falaise shops in Paris and her line was also carried in stores like Bergdorf Goodman. She eventually reduced that business to a single shop, on Rue Cambon in Paris, though she continued to make her jewelry for other shops and customers.

When Yves Saint Laurent passed away June 1, 2008, Loulou was there, at the funeral, of course (above) along with hundreds of mourners, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the Empress Farah Dibah of Iran and many, many others.

Below is a photo tribute to Loulou:

Loulou de la Falaise at her Paris Flat.

Accesories Diva: Loulou de la Falaise

Dancing Diva: Loulou de la Falaise

Muse Model: Loulou de la Falaise

Best Friends: Yves Saint Laurent and Loulou de la Falaise in 1990.

Loulou will be missed but I'm sure her and Yves are happy to be reunited in Couture Heaven.

La Muse: Hélène Rochas

La Madame Rochas...

Hélène Rochas, with "Bat" Mask

Hélène Rochas, former director of the luxury house of Rochas, passed away at 84 earlier this month. An elegant woman, icon of Parisian chic and as Frédéric Mitterrand, France's minister of culture and communication, said in an official statement "....With her vanquished the last muse of the great couturiers and artistic circles from after the war, vanquished a past universe of splendor and sumptuous Parisian parties..."

Hélène Rochas

Here are some Hélène Rochas Facts:

Couturier Marcel Rochas

• Hélène Rochas helped turn the House of Rochas into a perfume POWERHOUSE.

• She became the third wife of couturier Marcel Rochas only a few months after she met him as an 18-year-old during the Nazi Occupation in Paris on the last Metro of the evening.

• Her mother was France's first woman dentist.

Model Lisa Fonssagrives wearing Rochas in an Irvin Penn Photograph, American Vogue 1950

• When he closed his own atelier in 1953, he took her to Chanel, Dior, and Balenciaga for her wardrobe.

• As a result of her husband's early death in 1955, she rebelled and cut her hair short (Mon Dieu!)

• Also, on his death in 1955 his wife Hélène, who was not yet 30, took charge of the business. Over the next fifteen years, she transformed the couture house into a multimillion dollar label, primarily through the addition of fragrances like Madame Rochas in 1960 and Eau de Rochas

• When her husband died, she was asked to become president of the company. She turned it into France's sixth largest perfumer by 1964.

• Hélène ran Rochas until 1971, when she sold it for a reported $40 million, and then returning from 1984 to 1989 as a fragrance consultant. Her influence over the brand continued through to its most recent incarnation with Olivier Theyskens’ appointment as creative director between 2002 and 2006, with him citing her as one of his inspirations.

Madame Rochas with Yves Saint Laurent, 1980's

• She wore a lot of Yves Saint Laurent Haute Couture. She is said to have bought three or four Saint Laurent Couture outfits (estimated at over a quarter of a million US dollars at today's rate) per season and 10-12 "boutique" or pret-a-porter/ready to wear ensembles.

Below are several more photos of the divine Mme Rochas:

Hélène Rochas, 1984: In Yves Saint Laurent Haute Couture--Color Blocking ahead of its time!

Hélène Rochas, bouffant, an Yves Saint Laurent Haute Couture gown...and a feathered fan

Andy Warhol Portrait of Hélène Rochas, 1974

A Rochas spokesperson said that Hélène’s death marked "the end of a myth, of an era… She was the muse of one of the great couturiers, the last to remain alive from that era."

First Fashion Look: YSL Resort 2012

Nautical a la Francais

Ahoy Mademoiselles: YSL Resort 2012

Stefano Pilati, Head Designer for the House of Yves Saint Laurent, just showed the YSL Resort 2012 Collection. It was Nautical in its theme. And as stated by Style.com:
The designer pointed out that Yves Saint Laurent did a nautical collection of his own around 1982. "He showed it with sheer stockings and pumps, and I loved the 'why not?' factor," Pilati said. Sheer hose and pumps were out for 2012, though, and bared legs and high wooden wedges that had commercial hit written all over them, were in.

Where's my Yacht: Looks from the YSL Resort 2012 Collection

Retro Vacation: Looks from YSL Resort 2012 Collection

Strong vibrant colors, such as lipstick red, canary yellow, royal blue, deep black. Prints were abundant in stripes (Nautical theme n'est pas?), as well as over-sized poppy flowers. The collection was indeed, sellable, commercial and on-mark with the 40's and 50's influences many fashion designers are into (including moi!). It was all very Très Chic and I am sure many a young Hollywood actress will be urging their stylists to have a look...

Poppy Love: Printed looks from the YSL 2012 Resort Collection

I Heart Sales.

Sooooo, to be perfectly honest, I didn't like these at first. I might have even said that they were hideous. I know I thought it at least.

Something magical happens when you see a YSL shoe on sale. You go- hmmm, maybe I should give that a second look. And then, sometimes when you do... you like it.

Case in point. I saw these on the sale rack at Bergdorf, and figured I hadn't given them a fair shot and never actually tried them on. So I did, and you know... I kinda love them. They look great with my JBrand zipper jeans and they aren't as over exposed as my TribToo pumps. 

I wore them to dinner tonight and was pleasantly surprised at their comfort and that the tractor bottom does wonders on icy and snowy patches of concrete. Haha. My new "walking" shoes. 

So anyway- time for you to judge. What do you think??

Tomorrow it's back to California. I didn't make it out of here without shopping for myself, but at least the things I did buy were at HUGE discounts. I got these YSLs for like, 60% off and then I got THE SICKEST Jill Sander boots for a whopping 80% off!! Amazing. (I'll post about those when I get home)

I also got a Marc by MJ coat for I dunno what % off... but it was a good deal. ;)

Pretty good for a shopaholic, huh? 

Ben, don't be mad! We'll get our countertops soon!

The Loss of a Legend...

"What I would like to do is to go away, go away for a long time, without doing anything in particular, forget everything, and then come back to see if I still want to make dresses."
- Yves Saint Laurent's reply on a questionnaire that is part of an exhibition of his works at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

Yves Saint Laurent, born Aug 1st, 1936. He left home at the age of 17 to work for the French designer Christian Dior. Following Dior's death in 1957, Yves, at the age of 21, was responsible for saving the Dior house from financial ruin. In 1983, he became the first living fashion designer to be honored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
In 2001, he was awarded the rank of Commander of the Légion d'Honneur by French president Jacques Chirac.
YSL had been the first to put women in pants, the first to give them tuxedos, and the first to use black models for his catwalk shows. He was a pioneer and a legend.
Yves Saint Laurent retired in 2002 and became increasingly reclusive. Paying tribute to his mentors, including Christian Dior, Balenciaga, Schiaparelli and Chanel, he said that his decision was based on a disgust with an industry that had become ruled more by commercial gain than art. "I have nothing in common with this new world of fashion, which has been reduced to mere window-dressing," he said. "Elegance and beauty have been banished."
From then until his death he spent much of his time at his house in Marrakech, Morocco. He later created a foundation with his lover and business partner, Pierre Bergé in Paris to trace the history of the house of YSL, complete with 15,000 objects and 5,000 pieces of clothing.
He lost his battle with brain cancer on June 1, 2008 at his home in Paris. 

The world of fashion was deeply changed because of YSL's genius and for that, he will live on forever.