The Beautiful Fall

Yves could exorcise certain of his demons. Yves nearly burnt himself alive – as in all exorcisms. But it is not Jacques who took him there. It is the profound nature of Yves. Jacques was only the instrument.’

And indeed long after the affair was over, the idea of Jacques continued to be a source of pain that Yves could exploit. ‘I saw Jacques today,’ he would say for years afterwards, inventing the lie with which to torment Pierre Bergé.

there were also hints of the power Yves could wield through this shyness.

15 September 1982, after six months of seething gossip and stealth, the announcement came: Karl Lagerfeld was going to design for Chanel. Twenty-eight years after he had stood for that one precious moment on a level with Yves Mathieu-Saint-Laurent and his shining destiny, Karl had finally caught up. He was forty-nine years old

shrink from contact with the others

vying for her favour by

the looms began to whir again.

passive to that exten

How ’ya gonna keep ’em down on the farm (after they’ve seen Paree)?

Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young, 1919

Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale

‘Elegance,’ said the breathless teenage Yves, ‘is a dress too dazzling to dare to wear twice.’