A Quote by Dawn O'Porter

It was Yves Saint Laurent who realised the high-end design houses could make a lot more money if they sold more accessible clothing than the usual couture, when he opened his pret-a-porter store, Rive Gauche, in 1966.
I think the future fashion will be more and more separated-like, on one side would be big distribution, and on the other side there will be high-level prêt-à-porter and couture. I mean, the prêt-à-porter is already couture in a way for the prices and the way that it's made. The big distribution will allow people to dress in a fashionable way, so this could be for everybody. This part of the big distribution will be stronger and stronger, but the other part we are coming up on is more and more rich people, because we are always thinking about Europe and about America.
The pret-a-porter collection will be the same as couture in essence: I love luxury, beautiful products, handmade with care, but at more accessible prices.
Haute couture is a legitimate subject for Yves Saint Laurent and could resume one day.
In prêt-à-porter now we understandably need to make the collection satisfy the big market more, so couture is extra special.
In fashion, of course, the way that women are dressed now - and also a vision of the modern woman, the woman of today. She's very feminine, but at the same time, extremely free. A Saint Laurent woman is actually very Parisian. She's not really a man's equal, she's his adversary. I worked on the catwalk with two models who worked with Yves Saint Laurent for more than 10 years. They're not just gorgeous models, they're more than that - they're very smart and very beautiful. They're more than models, they're really unique; it's personality. It's more than just fashion.
I worked in fashion, but I worked more in the sales side of fashion than in design. I was an assistant buyer for a department store back in the '70s and the early years of Saint Laurent. And I used to have a lot of private clients that I bought for.
I've spent a lot on clothes. I'm not kidding when I say I could have bought several country homes with the money. I've also given a lot away over time. I had a lovely Yves Saint Laurent jacket that I'd only worn once or twice, but I'm one for spring cleaning rather than storing my clothes.
I am a man who has spent more than half a century ostensibly and visibly accompanying Yves Saint Laurent throughout his life - but not only that. In the past and still today, I have been behind a lot of creators and artists, supporting them and helping them. That's probably how I see my mission.
Yves Saint Laurent is a young man of excellent taste; the more he copies me the more taste he displays.
I am not really sure that Diana Vreeland did Yves Saint Laurent a favor, as opposed to the world, by putting that exhibition at the Met in 1983. Because I'm sure that Saint Laurent started looking back at his own work. You see that with artists, don't you? Once they get their first retrospective, it's really hard for them to push ahead.
My mum was very glamorous, an incredible seamstress. She made up those Vogue, Givenchy and Yves St. Laurent patterns they used to sell. It was church couture, darling! Because my dad was a pastor, she could get away with more than other women. Her skirts were that bit tighter.
When I first got Yves Saint Laurent Couture, I didn't know how to take off a cape. I would ask Katoucha and Dalma - the real divas of the runway - 'Can you show me?' I've never been afraid to ask for help.
I've already bought another house in Tangier and the one in Deauville has been for sale for some time. As for Yves's Saint Laurent apartment, it is being sold because he's dead. But I won't be furnishing my home from Ikea.
The problem with Yves Saint Laurent was that he was a man who understood his time period better than anyone, but he didn't like it. Real artists live their own lives in parallel. It's the artist who transforms his times.
For me, Yves Saint Laurent is a hero because he fought his whole life against illness. Maybe the only way to fight this illness for him was to make it positive with creation. Otherwise he would have been lonely or in the hospital. He had so many issues with alcohol, drugs, and everything, this explains a lot about his necessity to create.
I just have more Yves Saint Laurent in my closet, but it is pretty much the same - I just wear black almost 365 days of the year. I am married to it.
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