Roxanne Lowit Photographs Yves Saint Laurent
“I love Yves Saint Laurent,” writes photographer Roxanne Lowit in her new book, entitled simply Yves Saint Laurent. “His name is synonymous with style, elegance, and high fashion. I love that I met him on top of the Eiffel Tower. I love that I always felt so welcomed backstage. I love that he always had such a passion for his work.” In the book, Lowit, who indeed met Saint Laurent with friends Andy Warhol and Antonio Lopez on top of the Parisian landmark —“It was, in retrospect, really major,” she said in an interview before the book’s launch party—shares vibrant, candid photos of the designer and his work from their meeting in 1978 through his last show in 2002. Lowit called on Saint Laurent’s long time business partner Pierre Bergé to pen the forward, and friends Jerry Hall, Valerie Steele, Pat Cleveland, Grace Jones, Betty Catroux, Paloma Picasso, Catherine Deneuve, and Lucie de la Falaise (niece of Loulou) to share their favorite memories alongside Lowit’s portraits of them. “I chose the people who were close to him that I knew would give me something wonderful,” she said. “I think the most memorable for me was when I was his photographer for 25 Years [of Design] at the Met. It was the first time anybody did something for a living designer and I was his personal, private photographer for the whole thing. My feet didn’t touch the ground the whole two weeks. We just had this wonderful raport together, we liked being in each other’s company and we liked each other. From day one it was like that.”
Yves Saint Laurent by Roxanne Lowit, $50, barnesandnoble.com.
Photos: Roxanne Lowit Photographs Yves Saint Laurent
Opium Party, 1978, Alya Chinn. ©Roxanne Lowit. Courtesy of Roxanne Lowit.
Ready-to wear Spring 1981. ©Roxanne Lowit. Courtesy of Roxanne Lowit.
New York, 1983. ©Roxanne Lowit. Courtesy of Roxanne Lowit.
Ready-to-wear Spring 1983. ©Roxanne Lowit. Courtesy of Roxanne Lowit.
Ready-to-wear Fall 1984. ©Roxanne Lowit. Courtesy of Roxanne Lowit.
Ready-to-wear Fall 1984. ©Roxanne Lowit. Courtesy of Roxanne Lowit.
Haute couture Fall 1985. ©Roxanne Lowit. Courtesy of Roxanne Lowit.
Catherine Deneuve, 1988. ©Roxanne Lowit. Courtesy of Roxanne Lowit.
Haute couture Spring 1990, Katoucha Niane. ©Roxanne Lowit. Courtesy of Roxanne Lowit.
Haute couture Spring 1993. ©Roxanne Lowit. Courtesy of Roxanne Lowit.
Haute couture Spring 1993, Shalom Harlow. ©Roxanne Lowit. Courtesy of Roxanne Lowit.
Jerry Hall, 1995. ©Roxanne Lowit. Courtesy of Roxanne Lowit.
Yves Saint Laurent by Roxanne Lowit, $50, barnesandnoble.com. Courtesy of Thames & Hudson
