Comments on: More Of This, Please

By: pam

pam — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 06:55:16 +0000

He was one of the 1st high end designers to give clothes to Ebony Fashion fair. In the beginning many didnt want black women even seeing thier clothes .love him.

of course fetish features. what is real or pc about fashion?

women in coture are all fetishized, stylized, stereotypes at best. black women included. your not so much an individual as a type.

I choose to respect Yves for having the balls to include different ethnicities because he felt they were beautiful and made his clothes look good.

I also love the african influences in some of his collections which he acknowledged as well.

By: flygyrl72

flygyrl72 — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:26:53 +0000

From just reading a lot of stuff on the history of YSL,and seeing a lot of archive photos, one could see his love for Black models even w/o having heard him say it.

And what if he was fetishizing? Who cares? He liked & appreciated the beauty of women of color. He liked what the browness/blackness brought to the table & how it enhanced his designs. You can clearly see that genuine appreciation in the way he was talking. It’s fashion, so EVERYbody’s beauty is bound to be objectified on one level or another. What of it?

More importantly, I’ve never come across any troubling images of the way he portrayed Black models. He was respectful about it.

And since his clothes are known for being sexy, probably any model he used was gonna come off in some variation of sexy anyways…it’s not a shocker that he looked at it in those terms, i.e. “provocative”, “the bodies”. Makes sense to me.

Big ups, Yves! There needs to be more like you…

By: Vonmiwi

Vonmiwi — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:46:00 +0000

I saw this on his website after he died and I also lived in Europe during the 80′s and our beauty was celebrated. I wrote a post about one of his other favorites and one of mine, Rebecca Ayoko. That’s what I loved about YSL, even though Mounia was clearly a favorite, the models of the French speaking African countries and even American models became his stars in those days. From Gianfranco Ferré and even Karl Lagerfeld- before he became an idiot, Black models were used in record numbers. If they sold high-end Haute Couture in those days, why can’t they sell them now? Today’s designers don’t have a backbone anymore and have followed the trends of other designers with the anorexic, deer in the headlights models of today, the Eastern European models of choice. Today’s runways are hard to even look at these days because the models are so stiff. Thank GOD that I stll have my memories, magazines and can find videos of the good old days.

By: Blogreader

Blogreader — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:54:06 +0000

A pigeonhole is still a pigeonhole.

By: Kwana aka OrangeStar616

Kwana aka OrangeStar616 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:20:14 +0000

Bravo Yves well said…..

By: Shell

Shell — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:57:56 +0000

Bella, thanks for showing the spotlight on YSL. Makes me appreciate him more knowing he went to bat for black models. I do love Voguespirit channel too, thanks for sharing this as well.

By: Gisele

Gisele — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:50:22 +0000

This was included in the AmberMag link Bella provided–It’s a shame this love of diversity is lacking in a new century-smh

“Iman, former Saint Laurent model and CEO of Iman Cosmetics shares Smaltz’s belief but also points out Saint Laurent’s passion for all women of color. “Mr. Yves Saint Laurent had a love affair with models with skin of color whether they were Africans, African-American, Caribbean, Brazilian, Indian, Tahitian, Japanese and all the colors in between… no designer has given us models with skin of color a higher tribute.”

By: Caribbean Girl

Caribbean Girl — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:36:27 +0000

wow – hopping along to add documetary to my wish list.

By: Blogreader

Blogreader — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:34:26 +0000

BritB Says:

If you think that’s what I meant, you’ve completely misread my comments.

By: BritB

BritB — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:53:06 +0000

oh, so if they don’t want to use a black model, they’re trying to exclude us, but if they say they love black models, they’re fetishists. damned if you do, damned if you don’t. :shrug: