Bonne Fete Bastille

In honor or Bastille Day, I thought I'd feature the work of the late Yves St. Laurent who helped shape the style of the sixties on film. While many know of his work as a couturier  and perhaps one of the greatest names in French fashion history, he was also a film costume designer.

Deneuve in Belle de Jour and YSL above and below

YSL Costume Sketches for Belle

Belle de Jour also put Roger Vivier Pilgrim Pumps on the map

His greatest work (or maybe it's just my favorite) was for Luis Buñuel's erotic masterpiece Belle de Jour (1966) about a bored housewife (Catherine Deneuve) who turns to prostitution to fill her afternoons -- and tame by today's Fifty Shades of Gray standards. The French film icon became his muse both on and off the screen - the pair also worked on La Chamade (1968), Mississippi Mermaid (1969) and the controversial vampire film The Hunger (1983) (a film at the forefront of the genre). He also designed costumes for actresses Capucine and Claudia Cardinale in The Pink Panther (1963), Leslie Caron in A Special Favor (1965), Romy Schneider in Innocents With Dirty Hands (1975) and Jean Seberg in Moment to Moment (1965). 

Deneuve in Mississippi Mermaid (1969)

Deneuve in The Hunger 1983

Claudia Cardinale and David Niven in The Pink Panther (1963)

Jean Seberg in Moment to Moment (1965)

Romy Schneider in Innocents (1975)

Two of his uncredited films include designs for Sophia Loren in Arabesque (Christian Dior got the nod) and Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward's romp A New Kind of Love (1963) that won Edith Head the Oscar for Best Costume Design. 

Real husband and wife team Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward
in A New Kind of Love (1963)

Sophia Loren and Gregory Peck in Arabesque

While the designer passed away several years ago, his legend and design house lives on.
Vive La France!

Nicole Kidman at an Oscar luncheon in YSL

The Help's Jessica Chastain is the new face of YSL fragrances

Photo Credits: Clothes on Film, CNN, Universal Pictures