An Immediate and Potentially Reckless Reaction to "Saint Laurent"

The lovely Julia Nobis opening Saint Laurent (photo via style.com)

I've been awaiting Hedi's Slimane debut womenswear collection at the house formerly known as Yves Saint Laurent. Let's avoid a long, superfluous conversation about the name change. I don't like it. My knowledge of Slimane's contributions to the menswear at YSL and Dior is rather limited (just as my knowledge of menswear is), though I know he is revered for a minimalist and sort-of rock and roll aesthetic—the latter characteristic being more so where my interest in this collection resides.

I returned home from class just an hour or so ago, turned on my computer, and saw that Garance Doré had put up some images from the show in a post entitled "The New Saint Laurent Woman." Ever a fan of reinvention, I flipped through earnestly. The three photos were nice, but only showcased models from the waist up (or less), so I turned to style.com for the full story. As I looked at the images, I felt rather underwhelmed. Slimane's obvious 60's/70's I'm-a-rockstar-girlfriend inspiration should have excited me, as well as the masculine-feminine dichotomy that has always been present at Yves Saint Laurent (I am a fan of both), so why didn't it? The wide-brimmed hats, overworn by music-festival goers seemed so outdated, so tired. The voluminous bows on a majority of the looks were playful and dare-I-say classic YSL, but were not cause for recovery. The saloon vibes fell flat.

While I may sound aggressively critical—something I have openly tried to avoid here—I will say nothing was terribly hideous and I vocalized approval a couple times, but nothing felt groundbreaking. Hedi was installed at the house to breathe new life into it, though I find it necessary to say I don't believe Stefano Pilati failed the house. Instead, Slimane has given us a caricature of the young hip girl. I see past seasons of Balmain and Isabel Marant, in the heavy leather skirts and tight cropped pants, respectively, and I wonder: Where is the Hedi Slimane that "fashion people"/my tumblr peers so laud?

Sure, the reinvention of the wheel is a lot to ask, but that's what fashion is. Constant, back-breaking, brain-melting, eye-exhausting recycling and reworking in the effort to "create" something "new." One sometimes wonders if it's possible. Perhaps it's too much to ask. That said, I've been genuinely excited by some of the offerings certain designers (Haider Ackermann's move towards print, the Mulleavy sisters at Rodarte's reinstatement of the woman warrior)  have provided us this month, though none of them have been so built up by their absence. It may all come down this expectation, to a lack of time to process, and I may be eating my words later, but for the moment I'm disappointed.