Fashion is not only about what you wear and how you wear it, but also about the origins of your clothes. You may wear a trench coat now, but did you know that it was Thomas Burberry who first designed and produced it in 1914 as an officer's coat for the British Army?
The simple point being that we as modern human beings and perhaps more boastfully as Hopkins students, often take great pride in knowing more information about a subject than the average person does. So why shouldn't this thirst for knowledge continue beyond the classroom? Our knowledge of 18th-century British literature and the ins and outs of protein folding will only take us so far in terms of social interactions in our superficial world.
Lest we forget, first impressions are based pretty much solely on what we wear and how we look. It's important for us to know the history behind the clothes we wear. Not so much so that men can praise the inventor of the micro-miniskirt, but more so that both men and women alike can speak eloquently and intelligently of fashion and couture in social settings rather than discussing the latest biochem problem set.
That being said, let's jump-start your journey in fashion history by learning a little about the life of Yves Saint Laurent, a prolific designer and couturier who passed away this past summer.
Born Yves Henri Mathieu Saint Laurent in 1936 in Algeria, it was easy to see he had great fashion potential when at age three he told an aunt that her shoes did not work with her dress.
He left for Paris at age 16 and caught the eye of couturier Christian Dior after winning a design contest. Saint Laurent went to work under Dior's wing and took over the haute couture house at 21 when Dior died. Shortly after garnering fame for his intricate designs, Yves left Dior and started his eponymous line with his life - as well as business - partner Pierre Bergé.
His most successful creation was the tuxedo suit, or Le Smoking, for women, which many credit with revolutionizing the way modern women dress. Think of any business woman - your own mother perhaps, your best friend: her suit, and half her wardrobe, exists because of Yves Saint Laurent.
Yves was best at looking to the past for inspiration and bringing it to the runway with renewed passion. He brought the pantsuit to women for the first time. He interpreted artwork as dresses - his Mondrian interpretation becoming universally famous. He drew from the '30s and '40s with controversy, but his clothing became instant trendsetters.
He brought cultural clothing to the runway with styles from Russia, Africa and China and was the first designer to use black models in his shows. Truly a revolutionary, Saint Laurent's designs were always ahead of the pack. Even today his safari and Le Smoking collections influence designers among the likes of Prada, Gucci and Ralph Lauren.
Saint Laurent continued to garner success, and for 45 years he was a leading name in fashion. However, after a long and tumultuous battle with depression and drug abuse, he decided to announce his retirement from fashion in 2002. Having sold the ready-to-wear house to Gucci several years earlier, his Spring 2002 couture collection would be his last.
Fifteen days later, 2000 of Saint Laurent's invitation-only guests settled down in a tent inside Paris's Pompidou Centre, with several thousand more outside watching on a giant screen. The 300-piece historic collection started with the sailor's coat Saint Laurent designed first after leaving Dior and took a tour through 40 years of fashion. His famous Mondrian dress and tuxedo suits, along with many other influential designs all traversed the runway, some worn by Saint Laurent's earlier models and muses, including Jerry Hall and Claudia Schiffer. His black evening dresses and draping dresses all went on stage, pinnacles of fashion history. It was a show of epic proportions, a marvelous collection of beautiful fashion.
During retirement, Saint Laurent became increasingly reclusive and moved back to his Algerian home. His death this past summer from brain cancer was met with international mourning and remembrance. At his funeral, the entire elite world showed up. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his former supermodel wife, Carla Bruni (also a former model of Saint Laurent's), Catherine Deneuve and fellows designers such as Jean Paul Gaultier, John Galliano, Christian Lacroix, Valentino and Hubert de Givenchy, all appearanced in honor of the late couturier.
Yet it was his lifetime partner Bergé who made most of the funeral, saying in his eulogy, "But I also know that I will never forget what I owe you, and that one day I will join you under the Moroccan palms." Bergé also revealed that shortly before Saint Laurent's death, the two had decided to create a civil union together, a "pact of solidarity."
Yves Saint Laurent, who died June 1, 2008, was cremated and his ashes were scattered in a botanical garden in Marrakech, Morocco, a place he often took refuge in for solitude. Saint Laurent, who once said, "Fashions fade, style is eternal," died at the age of 71.
