Fashionlines Online Magazine
Fashion & Trends People & Places Art & Design Beauty & Health Shopping About Us Editor's Note
This Season's Trends

Customize Your Style >
Chantal's Secret:>
Risks and Rewards of the Birkin Bag >
Let the Fur Fly >
Family Jewels >
LA Finds >
Ins and Outs of 2005 >
Young Parisian Chic>
Couture Snowbunny>
Haute Couture Fashion Week>
São Paulo Fashion Week >
In the Bag >
Hollywood's Hottest Shoes >
The Best RTW of Europe >
Looking for Fashion's Spring >
LA Finds Spring 05 >

Featured Designers
Vivienne Westwood >
Jenni Kayne >
Brasil Anunciação >
as four Interview >
New West Coast Designers >
Elsa Schiaparelli >
Louis Verdad >
Au Bar with Alber >
Fashion Blues >
Passing the Torch at Geoffery Beene>
The Legend of Winston>
LVMH Sells Lacroix Couture >
Spring 2005 Carol Christian Poell >
A Jeweled Passion >
Sculpture to Wear >
Coco Kliks Interview >
Alber Reaches the Summit >

Runway Report
Haute Couture - Spring '05 >
São Paulo Fashion Week >
Paris Men's Wear - Fall '05 >
Paris - Fall '05 >
Milan - Fall '05 >
NY - Fall '05 >
LA - Fall '05 >
London - Fall '05 >
SF Fashion Week >

By Timothy Hagy

Searching for the Sweet Spot

PARIS, January 31 - Robert Polet, newly-appointed CEO of the Gucci Group, the owner of Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche, sat front row beside Pierre Bergé on Sunday afternoon at the Rue d'Artois headquarters. That in itself is newsworthy, as the last time Bergé darkened the door at a Saint Laurent men's show was when Hedi Slimane was in charge of the label, and that was January 2000.

But this is a different era for the house, now trying to reposition itself, and to find, according to Mr. Polet, a "sweet spot". Whether that has happened yet or not remains to be seen, but what is certain is that European editors, especially French ones, are now coalescing around Italian designer Stefano Pilati, charged with reinventing the rive gauche line.

The elegant calligraphy of the vermilion invitations seemed to reference the color Saint Laurent used extensively in his Rue de Babylon apartment, and the clothes also hearkened back to the maître - a violet mohair overcoat, an evening jacket in midnight blue, an emerald tux worn with a printed silk scarf. There was a refined look to the collection, which was sent out over a red carpet: the silly Ford-esque playboy theme has fortunately been scotched, in favor of a look both solid and mature.

There was a graceful warmth to it all, and that isn't surprising coming from Pilati, who by all accounts is a nice enough guy - in love with perfumed candles, which he lights in his Rue du Faubourg St. Honoré apartment.

 






Contact Us | Subscribe | Visit the fashionlines-lookonline-zoozoom forum | Fashionlines Archives | “Jewels By Christine” | Search

© 1998-2005 Fashionlines.com. All rights reserved.

NARS at Beauty.com