YSL MANIFESTO SS2011

revelations or triggers for you? When we reinvent the future we somehow rebuild the fragments of the past…

sp: In that sense I don’t really have any particular heroes – there are so many from the past that linger – but I always think about the masters and I can go from philosophers to artists, from writers to musicians. I fell in love with the idea of manifestos and with the term itself, because the word ‘manifesto’ implied a sense of breaking through something while still being connected to and aware of how things are today. In terms of the format, I didn’t really relate to any historical manifestos I’ve seen because my medium is fashion… There is fashion photography in the manifesto so even the idea of showing the pictures larger than they ap-pear in normal magazines was part of the act of manifesting.

huo: It has occurred to me that manifestos in the 20th century were very masculine. The Romanian artist Arthur Segal said that he considered this quality of manifestos to indeed be a feature of the 20th century—noisy and muscular compared to what would follow. The 21st century manifesto would have more accommodation, more dialogue, it would be more conversational.

sp: Yes. I’ve been influenced by the 1920s and 1930s, when women began to come to the fore and be accepted as equal, especially in the arts and in philosophy. I’m very conscious of how macho our world is. Conceiving a collection is an abstract process and this abstraction becomes concrete when I listen to and translate the total admiration I have for women. The term ‘manifesto’ is very fruitful and also very male, so to see it take a feminine shape, to use it as a tool to communicate femininity, I believe that is very interesting.

huo: You have said that often fashion has to do with the invention of new rules, and that sometimes means breaking other rules. The manifesto is also about a moment of breaking or inventing new rules.

spring/summer 2011 edition viii

yves saint laurent

From a conversation between hans ulrich obrist, Co-Director, The Serpentine Gallery, London and stefano pilati, Creative Director, Yves Saint Laurent

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hans ulrich obrist: The manifesto has been used as a document of intent by the avant-garde in the 20th century. With the hundredth anniversary of Marinetti’s Futurist Manifesto and with so many other manifestos—Dada, for example, in the early 20th century, and in the 1960s we had the new avant-garde—all over the world we have manifestos again… It’s different now because perhaps it’s less about political alliances and more about strategic or loose alliances. It seems that if we have manifestos now they’ll be singular, individual manifestos. I’m curious about how you see the manifesto in the 21st century, and how you connect it to the historic and near avant-garde.

stefano pilati: Well of course I had those references in mind. At the same time there is a general lack of ideology and it’s very difficult for a fashion designer to be connected to a movement. I approached the last manifesto in an objective rather than a subjective way since the heritage of the brand was extremely important in the evolution of the last three decades, from the 1960s up until the 1990s. First of all you need to question whether it’s interesting or not to be political about fashion, or if instead you wish to reinforce a message to people that is simply about looking good and projecting a positive energy about yourself. I was no longer interested in thinking of fashion in an elitist way. Everything I picked up from the manifestos of the past suggested that they were trying to create energy around an ideology that was considered, in its time, underground. So I thought for today I would offer another per-spective of a luxury brand to a broad demographic that doesn’t necessarily relate to fashion in the way that a more privileged layer of people do. I wanted to create a wider influence for the message that was being sent from the catwalk, by taking imagery of a collection and giving it to people on environmentally friendly paper in the street without targeting a specific demographic. One of my visions for Saint Laurent is about giving back, so that even if you can’t afford it, you can still pick up the essence of the message, the elements of fashion that might be considered increasingly irrelevant but remain for me its main aspects: the silhouette, the way the clothes are cut, the fabrics, a special pattern. It’s to say – ‘These are my thoughts and this is my message—you can pick up something from this and do it yourself.’

huo: It’s interesting to think about the different artistic manifestos from the past, and your manifesto now. Are there any fashion manifestos in particular that inspired you? Do you have heroes from the past who were

yves saint laurent – manifesto viii – spring/summer 2011 interview – hans ulrich obrist / stefano pilati

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revelations or triggers for you? When we reinvent the future we somehow rebuild the fragments of the past…

sp: In that sense I don’t really have any particular heroes – there are so many from the past that linger – but I always think about the masters and I can go from philosophers to artists, from writers to musicians. I fell in love with the idea of manifestos and with the term itself, because the word ‘manifesto’ implied a sense of breaking through something while still be-ing connected to and aware of how things are today. In terms of the format, I didn’t really relate to any historical manifestos I’ve seen because my medium is fashion… There is fashion photography in the manifesto so even the idea of showing the pictures larger than they appear in normal magazines was part of the act of manifesting.

huo: It has occurred to me that manifestos in the 20th century were very masculine. The Romanian artist Arthur Segal said that he considered this quality of manifestos to indeed be a feature of the 20th century—noisy and muscular compared to what would follow. The 21st century manifesto would have more accommodation, more dialogue, it would be more conversational

sp: Yes. I’ve been influenced by the 1920s and 1930s, when women began to come to the fore and be accepted as equal, especially in the arts and in philosophy. I’m very conscious of how macho our world is. Conceiving a col-lection is an abstract process and this abstraction becomes concrete when I listen to and translate the total admiration I have for women. The term ‘manifesto’ is very fruitful and also very male, so to see it take a feminine shape, to use it as a tool to communicate femininity, I believe that is very interesting.

huo: You have said that often fashion has to do with the invention of new rules, and that sometimes means breaking other rules. The manifesto is also about a moment of breaking or inventing new rules.

sp: As a fashion designer, you consider yourself more an opinion leader than an artist and, for good or bad, the rules of the game are not necessarily dictated by your own creativity, although obviously your creativity is central. The experience is also very emotional because it acts on this level of seduction and admiration and abstraction, and the unknown that is the feminine universe… Unfortunately the rules are dictated by a cause, by the market, because increasingly now you don’t create just for the sake of creating; you’re committed and commissioned and you must also fulfill

certain needs that sometimes go against your own needs and can affect and damage what you’re doing because of the time they consume. I’ve always tried to follow my instincts while still obeying the most important rules, working out, for example, how to execute a contemporary fashion show in a format that has stayed the same for more than 50, perhaps even 70 years now. In the first two or three years of my work for YSL, I tried to shift my approach to fashion, emphasizing femininity through the silhouette. Then I added force to the cut, the form, the volume, to the performance of the clothes. Each look was a different silhouette, denounc-ing the rules of the game that serve to contain and restrain your ideas and your skills… So I deliberately created something that seemed like a blank canvas but that actually presented many different fragmented forms, and that was quite controversial. Last season I tried a more relaxed approach in an attempt to detach myself from a subjective point of view; to be a little easier to read in terms of references from the past and the heritage that I have upon my shoulders. The truth is that no matter what we think, no matter what our instincts really are, we are caught by rules that are not necessarily our own. Perhaps the only way to make a difference is to be very honest. Honesty is something I think we are generally afraid of.

huo: We held a manifesto-themed event at the Serpentine Gallery a couple of years ago for which we gathered people from the worlds of con-temporary art and music. An artist there said that manifestos in the 21st century are like Duchamp’s bicycle wheel: all of a sudden they have be-come something we can revisit. Avant-garde manifestos were very often a rupture with tradition and the past, and a looking ahead to the new. Now we observe a great deal of revisiting and reappropriation of the past. Pierre Huyghe has called it the big ‘Re’: re-visiting, re-working… There are two-dimensional ‘re’ and three-dimensional ‘re’. Perhaps we can extend this to fashion as well? I’m wondering how you worked with the archives in earlier collections and manifestos? How do you make the new out of the old?

sp: I am someone who is definitely ruled by memories. I find that memory imprisons you more than it sets you free. You can bang your head against the wall and try to break them, but memories don’t disappear. What I try to do is to reinvent. I never go to the archives to redo something. The past is part of me, and memories become part of my language and vocabulary, the light that I catch in my eyes, my perception of the environment in which I live. You have to accept certain overall limits and as someone with

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influence I try always to avoid to be aggressive in what I do. But some-times, even if I accept certain limits and a retro taste, I go for it anyway.

huo: How do you think fashion shows can be both a medium and a mani-festo – because each time it is a different show, a new theme. It’s fascinating how you use fashion as a medium and how much it has changed since the 1980s and 90s – fashion shows are exhibitions, they are inventions. How have you seen the shows change over time? How do you see them now?

sp: The fashion show generates the manifesto but the manifesto is not necessarily an extension of it. In my first shows for YSL, I included produc-tion elements that could emphasize and support the show conceptually. These were mass productions at a great expense and when you see how fashion shows were in the 1960s, 70s or 80s, they seem much more hon-est somehow because it was about a designer working with models and that was all. People were interested in that and exclusively in that. Last season was, in a way, an expression of this approach. I chose a location that is very French, very simple, a series of salons with chairs, and I presented the clothes in the simplest way possible. We are in an era of spectacle and ostentation, so going back to something simple was, I felt, absolutely refreshing. I think this is what is needed today and I think it will continue until I work out how to conceive the old-fashioned show differently. Being intellectual or conceptual about the show definitely doesn’t work because it isn’t what people want. They don’t care about a concept unless it is linked to other factors, like the power of the fashion house in the media, the industry, the market. YSL is a big brand but we still operate in quite a concentrated way.

huo: When Marcel Duchamp created his great inventions he was very much inspired by Poincaré and science. Being in the middle of things, exploring other spheres – going out of the art world into architecture, fashion, music, science – suddenly great inspirations can happen, no? This idea of going into other disciplines can be very productive. sp: Absolutely. It is, absolutely.

huo: So I have collected manifestos and I write histories of manifestos and am working on a book where we gather manifestos from the 20th and 21st centuries. One can obviously have all sorts of manifestos but they very often take the form of protest, of conversations, a form of discontent,

proclaiming what is wrong with the world, what could change the world. I was wondering whether we could cover that idea of a manifesto: saying not what you like but what you dislike. What are your manifestos against?

sp: Against aggressivity, against exclusivity, against classification, against isolation, against introversion, against always looking at oneself. This is what it comes to in the end. Fashion can give rise to all of these things and it shouldn’t, especially today.

hans ulrich obrist is a Co-Director of The Serpentine Gallery, London. stefano pilati is the Creative Director of Yves Saint Laurent.

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© 2011. Yves Saint Laurent, SAS au capital 123 810 775 €. 342 547 361 Paris RCS. Dépôt légal en cours. Imprimé en France par nos soins. Ne pas jeter sur la voie publique. Printed in France by Yves Saint Laurent. Please dispose of properly.

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Ysl Creative Director: Photographers :

Models : Stylist :

Hair Stylist : Make-Up Artist :

Manicurist :Choreographer :

Stylist Assistant : Ysl Image Director :

Ysl Image Coordinator: Ysl Stylist:

Ysl Graphic Designer: Tailor :

Studio Manager : Photo Assistant :

Lighting Technician : Digital Technician :

Chief Electrician : Video Director of Photography:

Video Digital Technician: Production :

Production Team:

Art Direction and Design:

Excerpt from ‘A Conversation Between Hans Ulrich Obrist and Stefano Pilati’. January 2011. Spring/Summer 2011 women’s show. Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild, Paris. October 4, 2010.Spring/Summer 2011 women’s show. Backstage. October 4, 2010. Spring/Summer 2011 women’s show. Reviews. October 2010. Spring/Summer 2011 advertising campaign. Villa Bled Roknine, Marrakech. October 20-24, 2010. Spring/Summer 2011 advertising campaign. Portfolio.Blouse with bow detail and chiffon back in papaya cotton and silk toile flammée. Skirt in black cotton and wool twill. Earrings in old gold-tone metal with fingerprint motif. Belt in black padded leather with gold-tone metal buckle. 105 mm wedge sandal in black suede and gold lamé leather. Cape in black silk crepe. Halter top jumpsuit in black silk crepe. Belt in black suede with gold lamé leather piping. 105 mm multistrap wedge sandal in black suede and gold lamé leather. Bustier dress in black cotton and silk toile flammée with multicolor ruffles. Large belt in black suede with gold lamé leather piping. 105 mm wedge sandal in ocean blue multicolor python. Blouse in green silk chiffon with black fingerprint motif. Ruffled skirt in green silk chiffon with black fingerprint motif. Belt in blue suede with gold lame leather piping. 105 mm wedge sandal in ocean blue multicolor python. Tuxedo dress in black silk crepe. Chain in old-gold brass. Cuffs in gold-tone metal with fingerprint motif. 105 mm multistrap wedge sandal in black suede and gold lamé leather. Boatneck sweater in white cashmere and silk. Sunglasses in black acetate. Top with bow detail in beige cotton and silk toile flammée with black fingerprint motif. Sunglasses in white and black acetate. Jacket in black cotton saharienne gabardine. Skirt in black cotton saharienne gabardine with multicolor ruffles. Belt in black padded leather with gold-tone metal buckle. Reversible shopping bag in gold lamé and beige leather. 105 mm wedge sandal in black suede and gold lamé leather. Halter dress in khaki cotton, wool and silk piqué. Bracelet in old gold-tone brass. Totem dress in black cotton, wool and silk jacquard. Belt in black suede with gold lamé leather piping. Halter dress in papaya silk chiffon with black fingerprint motif. Bow blouse in papaya silk chiffon with black fingerprint motif. Large clutch in brown denim and black tweed-embossed leather. 105 mm wedge sandal in orange multicolor python. Double-breasted jacket in navy striped mohair wool. Pant in navy striped mohair wool. Socks in black ribbed wool. Shoe in black leather with espadrille sole. Halter top jumpsuit in black cotton and wool twill. Cuff in gold-tone metal with fingerprint motif. Belt in black suede with gold lamé leather piping. Spring/Summer 2011 short film. Stills. A Conversation Between Hans Ulrich Obrist and Stefano Pilati. January 2011. Spring/Summer 2011 Manifesto. Design Process.

Stefano Pilati Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin Arizona Muse, Will WestallJoe McKenna Christiaan HoutenbosLisa ButlerKhadijaStephen Galloway Tony Irvine Philippe Contini Céline Brighel Carole Sévagamy Mathilde Dupont Abdoulaye Dieng Marc Kroop Kevin McCarthy Jodokus Driessen Brian Anderson Bruno di Pietro Léo Hinstin Pierrick Corneau JMG ProductionJamila el Glaoui, Abdouh el Glaoui, Arnault Kononow, Frédéric Tron, Dorothée LindonEzra Petronio / Petronio Associates

spring/summer 2011 edition viiiysl.com