Yves Saint Laurent takes a bow at the finale of his couture catwalk show. Photograph: Neville Marriner/Daily Mail/Rex Features.

The big picture: Yves St Laurent unveils his autumn/winter couture collection

The influential designer, whose lasting legacy was the trouser suit, is in his element here as one of the last kings of couture

Peter Conrad
Sunday 4 April 2010

T

oday a few unfashionable people may be celebrating the rebirth of a god. Early Christianity legitimised itself by latching onto the pagan rites of spring, so the resurrected redeemer annually takes responsibility for the new life that stirs in the mortified earth. It's a shrewd strategy for any cult that wants to establish itself as a religion, and it has been adopted by the fashion industry, which observes holy weeks of its own throughout the year. In midwinter, designers anticipate spring at florid catwalk shows in which models mimic flowers on legs; what we see here is a midsummer show where the models are already dressed for winter – except for the one beside Yves Saint Laurent, who has an overblown rose where her head to ought to be. Fashion lives in the future: if winter comes, can spring be far behind?

On this occasion the audience outdazzles the models, and the young man in the yellow shirt could be impersonating a newly opened daffodil. Why all the sunglasses? Fashion belongs in a conservatory where exotic growths can be pampered. Hence this gilded hothouse, with spotlights creating a solar blaze indoors.

Roland Barthes suggested: "Fashion, for the modern woman, is a bit like what the great Dionysian festivals were for the ancient Greeks." Well, just a bit: these guests clap politely rather than running amok like the wine-maddened worshippers of Dionysus, who adorned themselves with flowers as a tribute to the blossoming god. Yet Saint Laurent understands the purpose of the performance: he has walked down a runway that resembles the nave of a cathedral to attend his own consecration. He has dressed for it, however, in a suit. For others, fashion may be an art or a religion, but for him it's a business. Gods only need to delude their infatuated followers; they don't have to believe in themselves.

THE GUARDIAN