This week fashionable women around the world are checking themselves in the mirror before they dash off to work. As they grab their purses and the keys to the car, they’re looking back at their reflection — and winking.
It’s a respectful clin d’oeil to the passing of Yves Saint Laurent, the 71-year-old designer, who died Sunday of brain cancer. His funeral was yesterday.
As a pioneer of modern ready-to-wear, Saint Laurent made the lustre of high fashion accessible to all women. He did for fashion what Henry Ford did for the car.
Saint Laurent put women in trousers and tuxedos, pant suits with chic bow-front blouses. He left behind a profound legacy — the working woman’s wardrobe.
Zoomer magazine editor-in-chief Suzanne Boyd, 45, loved his stylish, uniquely French and decidedly chic arrogance.
But more than that, she remembers how life-changingly important it was for her when she saw as a young woman that the YSL runway often employed women of colour as models. Boyd can still remember their names: Kirat, Mounia and Dalma.
