l’Amour Fou
Yesterday I’ve attended the premiere of L’Amour Fou, a documentary about YSL’s and Pierre Berge’s relationship and 50 year-long love. It was a movie that aimed at presenting YSL’s private life, personality and the side of him that wasn’t so visible and known to the public. For everyone, he was the master couturier, great designer who moved boundaries and set new trends but he was also a very shy and melancholic guy faced with a lot of pressure and stress. Movie was screened as a part of the Queer Zagreb Festival and the occasion was the 100th number of Croatian ELLE.
The movie once again confirmed my opinion that great minds, great artists, great creatives are all medals with two faces. The shiny and beautiful side and the darker one. YSL was a great talent who became too famous and too busy a bit too early. He was Dior’s apprentice at 18 and since Dior died three years later, YSL was appointed the head couturier for the house of Christian Dior at only 21. He was successful but under a lot of pressure and as he himself said in the movie, he was never really young, he never had that careless and joyful period as all the other young men do. He was simply thrown in the atelier and couldn’t get out. He loved his job, but it was stressful.
Pierre said that later in Yves’ life, he would see him happy only twice a year – and that was after the collections were shown and the designer was welcomed with loud applause and standing ovations. He lived for that moments but the happiness didn’t last long, the feeling would be gone the other day as Yves would face the beginning of the new creative cycle. When he resigned, he said it was because fashion has changed so much and he couldn’t find his place in it anymore. It was in the 2002. He died six years later. His partner Pierre Berge decided to sell their amazing art collection at the auction that was organised in Paris by Christie’s. Some bits of the long and overwhelming auction were shown in the movie and I must say I was stunned about how much money some people have and are able to spend it on such beautiful things like art, fashion and beauty. I am not jealous of their money but of the opportunity they have – the opportunity to enjoy such beauty and rarity in the privacy of their homes.
I recommend the movie to any fashionista who would like to dig deeper into this amazing world of creatives, beauty and exclusivity.
Blatantly escapistic 