Betty and Loulou

The Steve is away so I got to spend the evening with Yves instead, watching the Yves Saint Laurent documentaries 'His Life and Times' and '5 Avenue Marceau 75116 Paris' back to back and then re-reading The Beautiful Fall (tea stains a-plenty in this well thumbed book...). My favourite bits in the books are when the encounters with Yves' various muses are recalled, with Betty Catroux and Loulou de la Falaise and the descriptions of Loulou are particularly vivid which has propelled me into an afternoon of spending some time with Yves' muses...

I've never been one to channel other people's looks so it's more like playing around with the spirit and the two bi-polar styles that Betty and Loulou represented to Monsieur Saint Laurent and the different things they managed to coax out of him and inspire him to draw...

Betty Catroux: Androgynous, angula, skinny-hipped, invariably in black and liked her leather. She also sported the deviant schoolgirl look with high black socks, black mini and big belts slung on the hips. Her thin pencil stroke of a figure matched Yves' then-lithe slip of a figure and they feeded off each other's taste in the 'louche'.

(Alexander McQueen black satin cape, Lanvin tuxedo jacket, vintage black matt sequin skirt worn as top, Preen leather panelled troousers, Sam Edelman boots with plastic chains worn around the boots)

Loulou de la Falaise: Hippy-ish, electric and exhuberant in manner and in dress. She turned sarongs and saris into various outfits with the use of a safety pin, made cardboard and glitter star and moon accessories for her wedding outfit and took silver napkin holders to wear as bracelets. Yves relied on her gaiety enormously.

(Poltock & Walsh ruffled halterneck, Johnny Loves Rosie bow hat worn around the neck, tierred print dress from Hong Kong, fuschia pink tights, Pierre Hardy x Louise Goldin ankle boots)