George Carlin, stand-up comedy icon, died of heart failure in Los Angeles last night, furthering an odd phenomenon I’ve been noticing in June of 2008—the death of icons. The month began with fashion divinity Yves Saint Laurent dying of brain cancer on June 1st. The next day, Bo Diddley, a key figure in the American blues and rock n’ roll movements, died of heart failure. The fashion and music worlds are suddenly left without two of their greats.
A full house of celebrities, designers, and politicians attended the funeral of fashion icon Yves Saint Laurent today in Paris. Among them was legendary French actress Catherine Deneuve, looking properly mournful yet luminous. In sympathy, the windows at the YSL store on New York's 57th Street are bare of goods.
While Yves Saint Laurent may be gone, his legacy and memory remains. To many people, Saint Laurent was more than a designer. The fashion revolutionary, who died Sunday of a brain tumor, was responsible for creating iconic designs for over 48 years. In his own words, Saint Laurent aimed “to make women beautiful, but to reassure them, to give them confidence, to allow them to come to terms with themselves." And he did just that. Saint Laurent not only crossed traditional female fashion constraints by creating androgynous designs for women in the modern world, but he also traversed social and racial boundaries within the industry. In a tearful interview with Britain’s Channel 4 News, Naomi Campbell attributed Saint Laurent with propelling black models onto the runway. "My first Vogue cover ever was because of this man," Campbell said.
After a year battling brain cancer, the accomplished Parisian designer Yves Saint Laurent died on Sunday. Saint Laurent created designs that established the wardrobe of many a modern woman. From his days under Christian Dior to the formation of the House of Saint Laurent, he crafted quite a name (and a silhouette) for himself. Rather than mourn the death of this fashion revolutionary, we celebrate his work by highlighting three of his most inspiring pieces.
Never before has a perfume bottle been conceived by an architect, let alone legendary draftsman Jean Nouvel. As such, the design for L’Homme Yves Saint Laurent is, well, unique. It’s also a towering presence, explicitly phallic. Says Nouvel of his design, “The bottle symbolizes a fully assumed virility, while the fine glass creates a contrast implying a kind of fragility and softness.” Indeed. The new bottle isn’t available until May, but we’re guessing it’ll give heretofore king of corporeal design Jean Paul Gaultier a run for his “Le Male.” Find out more about the new design here.
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