We no longer present Coco Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent. I rewatched four films dedicated to them: if the associated houses are today undeniable bastions of French luxury, their original creators nonetheless remain figures that few filmmakers dare to shake up. All perhaps except one: Bertrand Bonello. His “Saint Laurent” is the most beautiful of the four, and not only for his costume art. Explanations.
(Cover photo credit: Gaspard Ulliel in “Saint Laurent” by Bertrand Bonello, 2014 - Photo IMAGO / Zuma Wire)
1. BRANDS
From Chanel and Saint Laurent, I keep on my side the figures, the journey, the visionary spirit and the idea of what fashion and haute couture were before becoming a business like any other: something that has to see with craftsmanship, passion, know-how .
It’s a love of fabric, materials and clothing that we share at BonneGueule, on our scale. In short, Chanel and Saint Laurent have left an absolutely major mark in the history of fashion , thus elevating it to the rank of a not at all minor art.
Gabrielle Coco Chanel, Paris 1963. (Michael Hardy/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Yves Saint Laurent, Paris 1982. (John Downing/Getty Images)
This is not the least of the feats that these two will have accomplished. Chanel and Saint Laurent have completely changed the field of their field of expression: fashion . What can we learn from these two creators and what their houses have become today? After the admiration, we must face the facts: we have changed the world.
Chanel
What do we think of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel and her legacy? We asked the question to Jennifer Bryan, the costume designer for the series “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” – small spoiler, we will soon come back in more detail with her on the costumes for these series.
“Coco Chanel is one of my favorite fashion designers. I personally identify with her, especially because she is a woman and she had to go through all kinds of challenges at a time when designers were mainly men . Being a woman of color, I identify with her struggles. Or at least I see parallels, in trying to be seen and heard, to have your voice heard and to be recognized for your skills.
Chanel is therefore a seamstress who matters to me because she broke this glass ceiling to become a sort of empress of style . It still is and always will be. Everyone who has followed and worn the house of Chanel since has managed to maintain this legacy. »
More critically, our editor Nawal has a very personal relationship with Chanel, which dates back to her early adolescence. She tells :
“ Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel undoubtedly revolutionized fashion and women's wardrobe . She is the originator of women's pantsuits, which are still part of our wardrobe to this day - and which are also very trendy at the moment. It’s truly an iconic French brand. I particularly remember the little Chanel tweed jacket with the big buttons, the big logo, but above all the quilted bags which are iconic pieces today, and which are the dream of many women.
For me, it has long represented a fashion ideal to achieve. Ever since I was 11 or 12 (since I started reading fashion magazines, actually), I've always dreamed of having a Chanel bag. It was a totally unaffordable obsession but one for which I saved my money for more than ten years. I ended up managing to treat myself to a Chanel bag on my 30th birthday, which I bought vintage. It's a model called Diana and who no longer exists.
Circa 1986-1988, the great era of Karl Lagerfeld - which is actually my favorite Chanel era . It's French chic: iconic pieces and a designer who changed a lot of things, liberated women through clothing, but who also had many flaws.
I find that she sometimes had quite restrictive and restrictive speeches, the kind that put women in boxes. I also don't forget his troubled past.
Chanel is not an affordable brand, and its prices have become even more exorbitant since Covid. If I had the money, I would perhaps be more of a customer, but more vintage since I don't like at all the proposals of today's artistic director, Virginie Viard. I find it horrible (I remember very ugly silver leggings during a recent fashion show), and it's becoming more and more difficult to find the DNA of the house in the latest collections.
The only category in which we still really find the Chanel touch, in my opinion, are accessories: bags, brooches, earrings. But otherwise, I think it's a disaster. When it was Karl Lagerfeld, it was magical and the Chanel heritage was there. With Virginie Viard, I find that this is no longer the case at all.
Like many French haute couture brands that produce ready-to-wear, the latter is designed to sell. There is no longer anything invented, we are only recycling things already seen here and there . We no longer have avant-gardism in that area, and I find that a real shame. »
Saint Laurent
Is the phenomenon described by Nawal found at Saint Laurent? In 2013, the BonneGueule editorial team looked into the YSL brand. The article is still online here:
As for Nawal, she confirms the contemporary trend, not without revealing her passion for the jackets of the master of French fashion:
“Saint Laurent, I love it! The 70s-80s period in particular. He invented many things and created countless emblematic creations of French fashion. The Mondrian dress in 1965 was incredible, just to name one. It's a dress inspired by the artist's paintings, so pretty with its primary colors.
Generally speaking, Yves Saint Laurent invented many things for women . The feminine tuxedo for example. Even today, the Saint Laurent tuxedo jacket is THE iconic jacket : if you want a perfect tuxedo jacket, you have to go to Saint Laurent... even if of course, not everyone has 2,200 euros to wear in a tuxedo jacket (and certainly not me!). The safari jacket on him is just as incredible.
Today's Saint Laurent is distinguished by a very modern, very rock universe, with filiform and androgynous silhouettes.
I am not a current customer of the brand at all. On the other hand, I have a lot of vintage Yves Saint Laurent pieces, from the late 60s to the 80s. I collect jackets in particular: I have six or seven. I also have a bracelet from the 80s. Everything is vintage, nothing cost me very much. I found the cheapest piece at 4 euros and the most expensive at 120 euros. It's very reasonable for clothes of this quality and from this designer.
What I like about Saint Laurent are the crazy prints, the oversized shoulders, the narrow waists, the big buttons that look like jewelry , etc. But like Chanel, it's unaffordable in terms of price and since Heidi Slimane, it's also slimmer and skimpier.
It's a brand that targets a certain type of woman: very thin women. But for my part, I have hips. Even if I had the money, I don't think I could dress in Saint Laurent. I just don't fit their target.
Besides, Anthony Vaccarello's current work doesn't really speak to me. It's actually quite painful. We could quite honestly find the same thing at Zara. If we take the clothes without the catwalks, we could almost confuse the two brands. All of this goes back a bit to what I think of Chanel: there is nothing really new anymore.
That said, they are still beautiful houses. They are known internationally, it is a French heritage and in people's minds, it will remain that way forever. I just regret the choice of artistic directors, who have a vision that I find less coherent than in the past.
For the record, when I was 12-13 years old and I wanted to buy THE Chanel bag, it cost 1500 euros. I remember it because I had calculated the time it would take me to save the amount with my pocket money. In the end, I was only able to buy it when I was 30. But this bag today costs 7,500 euros. I would never have put that price in a bag, hence my choice to turn to second hand!
Today, we don't pay so much for the know-how and raw materials as for the logo placed on a piece . In my opinion, we lose the true value of things through these types of luxury homes. In fact, the public will unfortunately turn less towards brands with a real heritage, pieces which will cost 900 or 1200 euros but which will be really worth it, than towards luxury brands like Chanel or Saint Laurent. We just pay for the name and the logo, more than the true value of the garment, bag or accessory. »
2. FILMS
The work of Chanel and Saint Laurent regularly haunts cinema . The second, for example, largely contributed to the inimitable style of Catherine Deneuve in her films. There are also a large number of books and documentaries on their work and their journey. But for my part, I was mainly interested here in four cinema films, which each tell in their own way a little of the story of these two fashion monsters and their vision of clothing.
1. “Coco before Chanel” (Anne Fontaine, 2009)
As its name suggests, Anne Fontaine's film focuses on recounting the young years of Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel in the early 1900s. We discover, among other things , the obsessions and the beginnings of what will forge the legend from the designer: the liberation of the female body through clothing, comfort, men's fashion, black or white colors , etc.
For the rest, it is a rather romantic adventure and relatively academic in its treatment and staging. That is to say that it is above all, for me, a film to watch for the little stylist and seamstress tips and anecdotes that it imagines .
“Coco before Chanel” is inspired by L’Irreglière by Edmonde Charles-Roux. The designer is played here by the actress Audrey Tautou, herself the brand's muse for its famous perfume n°5 .
In the film, her character is in the making but all of Coco Chanel is already there . As such, the outfits are exciting to see, in the midst of a revolution in cuts and styles. Some would probably still work today.
Filmmaker Anne Fontaine imagines, through small details, how Gabrielle Chanel cuts, arranges or diverts men's and women's clothing in her daily wardrobe . These small sequences of work or practical life are among the most captivating moments of the film.
The Chanel house has opened the doors to its archives for the film and the costumes. The head costume designer, Catherine Leterrier, delved into the photo archives of the designer and her era to recreate the possible outfits that we see in the image.
We know that certain points differ from reality. Chanel, for example, would have been familiar with the tweed material by the Duke of Westminster and not by his protector Etienne Balsan, as “Coco before Chanel” suggests. The fact remains that the costumes are credible and particularly interesting.
2. “Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky” (Jan Kounen, 2009)
In 2009, “Coco before Chanel” was not the only film about the fashion designer: Director Jan Kounen, usually not keen on lace, presented his own story, “Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky”, inspired by 'a book by Chris Greenhalgh which would credit Gabrielle Chanel with an affair with the composer Stravinsky .
In the cast: Mads Mikkelsen and Anna Mouglalis, also a fan and muse of the house of Chanel . Her character is very different from that played by Audrey Tautou: more glamorous, harder and calculating.
Unlike “Coco before Chanel”, we see much less of Anna Mouglalis working on clothing. What she reflects here is a strong character, that of a businesswoman as assured and formidable as she is in great demand .
However, between the two films, it is indeed the same person. We can even say that Jan Kounen's film begins where Anne Fontaine's ends. In the meantime, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel has become a renowned seamstress: the legend is on the rise .
If Jan Kounen's film may leave you indifferent, it is, however, surprising in its relative sobriety. The costumes made by Chattoune and Fab are very beautiful, starting with those of Anna Mouglalis. Generally speaking, the aesthetic of the film is particularly stylized.
What we see on the screen is a sort of everyday fashion show and quite a few evening outfits: 1920s style, very chic but at the same time almost distant . For some, “Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky” will undoubtedly be closer to the animated fashion magazine than to the cinema: it may lack the madness, the passion, the thing that goes off the rails and the story of clothing being transformed. TO DO.
Like “Coco before Chanel,” the film’s costumes benefited from access to the Chanel archives. Karl Lagerfeld also gave some advice and lent some period clothes. The result is the fruit of what we imagine is colossal work. There are few photographic archives of Coco Chanel from the 1910s-1920s. Everything is therefore interpreted in the most realistic way possible. The play with black and white colors is particularly significant here:
“You don’t like the color, Miss Chanel?” »
“As long as it’s black!” »
3. “Yves Saint Laurent” (Jalil Lespert, 2014)
In 2014, Jalil Lespert made a film on the designer Yves Saint Laurent, with the approval of the fashion master's lifelong companion: Pierre Bergé. In the cast: Pierre Niney, Guillaume Gallienne or Charlotte Le Bon.
Yves Saint Laurent, the film, is set somewhere between the late 1950s and the late 1970s, and mainly revolves around the relationship between Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé. There we come across, among other things, the famous Mondrian dress mentioned by Nawal above. Jalil Lespert indeed had access to the master's archives and collections for his film. In terms of costumes, the result is splendid. But nothing else really stands out from the film in my opinion.
For the record, Jalil Lespert is also an actor. He notably plays in “Le Promeneur du Champ de Mars” by Robert Guédiguian in 2004, already mentioned in a Bobine devoted to the Presidents of the Republic in cinema:
4. “Saint Laurent” (Bertrand Bonello, 2014)
A few months later, filmmaker Bertrand Bonello added his stone to the building. His “Saint Laurent” revolves around the period 1967-1976. Some saw in it a little something of “ Violence and Passion ” by Luchino Visconti. Others, like Pierre Bergé himself, simply cannot see the film in paint.
This is because Bertrand Bonello took his liberties with the real Saint Laurent. By the filmmaker's own admission, his film strives above all “to be as close as possible, to try to feel” . He doesn't explain, he feels. “Saint Laurent”, the film, is therefore not so much a biopic as a work which attempts to capture something: a complex character, passing over the years from day to night . The cast is five stars: Gaspard Ulliel, Jérémie Renier, Louis Garrel, Léa Seydoux and even Helmut Berger.
With few resources and blocked access to the Saint Laurent archives and costumes, the film team and its costume designer Anaïs Romand in particular had to demonstrate inventiveness and tenacity. “Whether they are real or fake Saint Laurent is not the most important thing. What matters is the talent of the filmmaker. » She will indicate in the face of criticism leveled at the film.
On this point, Bertrand Bonello's film demonstrates a real cinema touch. The presence of Gaspard Ulliel does a lot. That of Helmut Berger too. From the sets to the costumes, Bonello's film definitely has its own atmosphere and it stays in your mind for a long time , like an obsessive perfume.
3. WHY SAINT LAURENT MORE THAN CHANEL IN CINEMA?
In “Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky”, the composer says to the seamstress: “You are not an artist Coco, but a woman who sells fabrics. » . The response is both harsh and unfair. Because Chanel like Saint Laurent have elevated fashion to the rank of art . No one knows if we will see true artists of this caliber in fashion again. But it is precisely this trait of their personality that makes them so unique.
Does this mean that this is what I expected to feel from their characters embodied in the cinema? Yes, among others. Biopics, however well put together, only interest me when they go further than the documentary, when we discover a personal point of view.
In cinema, there is no doubt: it is Bertrand Bonello's “Saint Laurent” which best captures, through cinematographic means, all the complexity of being, of the artist and his history. This depth sublimates everything relating to costumes, sets and clothing .
In fact, Bertrand Bonello's "Saint Laurent" has something fascinating that the other three biopics do not have: it is incredibly alive , perhaps precisely because it goes beyond the simple framework of reconstruction and because it is narrated by someone who has no particular personal connection to fashion or to Saint Laurent.
Despite its qualities, the film “Yves Saint Laurent” by Jalil Lespert does not really allow us to extend our reflection on creation and clothing . The same goes for the two films dedicated to Coco Chanel, focused more on romance than on sewing and clothing creation. Very beautiful but too wise?
All these films obviously serve the cause of clothing and costumes in cinema . Each in their own way, they also shed light on the careers of Gabrielle Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent. However, we almost come to dream of a Bertrand Bonello film on Coco Chanel.
In the meantime, here is the tour de force accomplished by the filmmaker and his actor Gaspard Ulliel: their film gave me more than any other desire to delve back into the career and clothes of a fashion designer.
