He Put a Swagger In Women’s Steps
Yves Saint Laurent Threaded His Designs With an Empowering Aesthetic
By Robin Givhan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 2, 2008; C01
Often, when a fashion designer dies and his life’s work is assessed, some insistent hyperbole is necessary before the death matters to anyone beyond his loyal band of ladies who spend their time dashing between luncheons and charity balls. Most modern women are not going to weep at the passing of a fashion designer whose heyday was some 30 years ago.
But this time, it’s Yves Saint Laurent who has died. He passed away yesterday evening, at age 71, at his Paris home. And no exaggeration is required to explain the impact he has had on modern fashion. In the 1960s and ’70s, when he was at the height of his influence, he brought popular culture, a mannish swagger, sexual power and ethnic awareness to fashion. He gave women a wardrobe that spoke of confidence and authority. He didn’t give them armor for the boardroom as much as he gave them the sartorial equivalent of chutzpah, tough talk and bawdiness. He gave dames and broads their costumes.
Saint Laurent elevated youth culture and street style by equating it with the confections whipped up in a fancy atelier. And most important, he began fashion’s steady march toward democracy and the dissolution of the industry’s stultifying hierarchy.
Because of Saint Laurent, women’s closets are filled with now-classic garments that have become the backbone of a wardrobe. Items such as the safari jacket and “le smoking” — a tuxedo — have become such standard parts of a woman’s everyday life that it is difficult to remember a time when they did not exist. Avant-garde designers such as Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto have been influenced by Saint Laurent and the way in which he feminized menswear. Halston drew upon the sexual ease in a Saint Laurent garment.
While designer Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel championed the notion of women in trousers, it was Saint Laurent who sold the public on the idea. Saint Laurent put women in pants. It’s as simple and as influential as that. Without him, how would our mind’s eye see the authoritative ease expressed by Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton? That accomplishment alone would have been enough to secure him a place in history.
But Saint Laurent was not merely a part of fashion history, he was instrumental in writing the vast majority of it. He popularized the bohemian-chic sensibility that later went on to define the hippie aesthetic and its many artsy, grungy, hipster derivations. He welcomed so-called exotic and unorthodox influences into his work, such as the traditional prints of Africa and the folkloric costumes 
of Russia. He forged a relationship between fashion and the art world, most dynamically with his Mondrian dress of 1965. Without Saint Laurent, there would arguably be no Marc Jacobs, so greatly influenced by the work of Takashi Murakami, Stephen Sprouse and Richard Prince.
“Most people are lucky if they can do one thing, if they can make one major contribution,” fashion historian Valerie Steele said last night. Saint Laurent’s contributions could fill volumes.