The Architectural Review - 09.2019

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'Yves lives on, mUinmified and memorialised

through a hugely pl~ofitable afterlife of stuff:

clothes, cosmetics, accessories and perfumes'

carnivorous business of fashion, Yves lives
on, mummified and memorialised through a
hugely profitable afterlife of stuff': clothes,
cosmetics, accessories, perfumes and
licensing agreements. The protagonist may
be gone but the brand endures and t he tills
keep tinkling.

Saint Laurent's afterlife has been given
further impetus by the establishment of an
eponymous foundation and two museums in
Paris and Marrakesh, dedicated to his life
and work. In the decade since his death,
P ierre Berge has been carefully curating
Saint Laurent's myth and memory,
organising retrospectives and generally

taking care of business, as he did when Yves
was alive. Since the founding of Maison Saint

Laurent in 1961, Berge's role in establishing

and securing the commercial framework for

optimising Saint Laurent's talents cannot be

overestimated. 'It's up to bjm how he does

it', said Berge in a 1995 interview with design

critic Alice Rawstborn. 'If be needs anything,

be asks for it and I pay the bills.'

This enviable symbiosis of commerce and

creation saved Saint Laurent from having to

gTub around for financial backjng, freeing

him to focus on design. Berge always found

the money for Yves, whether it was to lavish

half a mn]jon dollars on presenting the 1976

Ballets Russes collection, or entertain 2,800

guests at the Bastille Opera to mark the

30th anniversary of Maison Saint Laurent.

At that point t he company was generating

three billion francs in annual revenue, with

more than 80 per cent coming from the

highly lucrative perfume market. But there

were more questionable deals, notably in

1993 when Berge engineered the sale of the

Saint Laurent business to Elf Sanofi, the

state-controlled French industrial group, for

$650m. The high purchase price and huge

profits made by Berge and Saint Laurent

came under scrutiny, fuelling suspicion that

t he deal was orchestrated by then President

FranQois Mitterrand as a favour to his close

friend Berge.

Berge died in 2017, barely a month before

the inauguration of the two YSL museums,

his final tribute to his partner, funded by the

proceeds of the estate sale. Together, Paris