Past Models of Yves Saint Laurent: Mimi Roche (Spring 2007 rtw), Sasha Gaye-Hunt (Fall 2007 rtw) and Marie Fuema (Spring 2006 rtw).Tianna of ConcreteLoop.com sent me an article by The Washington Post titled “Back in Fashion.” It’s a profile on YSL’s creative director Stefano Pilati. So I’m reading it with marginal interest until I came across the following few passages:
Pilati reflected the spirit of the house in his choice of models for the fall show. Saint Laurent was known for celebrating black models and in a season when they were especially absent on the runways, Pilati, at least, had one.
"In the '70s, to have black models in Paris and Europe was sort of a message of having an open mind," Pilati says. "We were definitely less used to races crossing lines. It was definitely something coming from America."
Saint Laurent "was very sensitive to that. It was helping to add exoticism to the collection and to embrace the multicultural aspect of the work."
Why aren't there more black models working today? "To me, it is a matter of proportions and the bodies I choose. My fit model was a black model," he says. "When I wanted to translate what I put on her, it was a disaster. It would need 13 times more work in the atelier to modify it to put on a more Caucasian anatomy.
"Sometimes, it's not your choice. You can't find [black models] that are beautiful and with the right proportions. I prefer them with lean proportions with no big hips."
Big hips? A dearth of beautiful black models? This from the designer who characterizes himself as the best salesman for his clothes.
Okay let’s hold-up, wait-a-minute, and rewind. “You can't find [black models] that are beautiful and with the right proportions.” If by beautiful you mean wafer thin, with their ribs sticking out and their knees knobbling from lack of food consumption, then I’m not surprised you couldn’t find “beautiful black models.” Who does he think he is? And in any case, the many black models I see walking the runways are smaller than the average sista I know. How much altering did the fit model's clothes really need? And I’m guessing Mr. Pilati isn’t in the least bit interested in appealing to the ever-increasing market of highly paid, powerful and professional black women around the world. He really needs to open his eyes and take note of the fact that women come in all shapes and sizes. I can’t imagine why he would think no hips are better than hips… THAT IS WHAT MAKES US FEMALE!!!! What are your thoughts?
This is sad. Aren't designers supposed to sew clothing in such a way that a multitude of people (of a certain size) can wear them? If he has this much trouble making a dress that can't fit two skinny models of the same dress size, than maybe HE CAN'T SEW!
ReplyDeleteAnd since when are all people built the same just because they are of a certain race? The guy is a moron...plain and simple?
whoa! i'm speechless.
ReplyDeleteAs a designer I'm speechless too. I can say with authority that Mr. Pilati does not speak for all of us. I use SEVERAL fit models when planning our collections, and this makes me doubt he actually had a black fit model. Black women come in several different body types, and all the black models I work with, have mirrored many white models in body type and shape. As far as finding black models that are beautiful? He's on a spaceship, thankfully not all designers are on with him!
ReplyDeleteArticles like this disgust me. Sometimes I feel that people will use any excuse possible to tear us down.
ReplyDeletePlus...anyone named Pilati should understand hips well. Italians are built a lot like women of color. *sigh*
I WAS READING AND HOPING HE CAUGHT HIMSELF AND SHUT UP, BUT WOW. OBVIOUSLY THEY DO NOT MAKE CLOTHES WITH US IN MIND, SOME PEOPLE ARE SAD AND PATHETIC ABOUT RACISM.
ReplyDeleteWOW!!! Well, he has been saying it with his designs for years. Now he has simply validated it with his words.
ReplyDeleteUggh, I have a bad feeling he is not the only designer who feels this way.
ReplyDeleteWhat a sad and woefully flawed perspective he has.
*sigh*
ReplyDeleteyou see, these eurocentric people are everywhere and in every field.. sad.
ReplyDeleteWOW! I swear my breath just got caught in my throat. I'm shocked. Well, I don't YSL kinda money anyway!
ReplyDeleteUmmm he is tripping and fell on his face. Now the sad part is he isn't the only one that thinks like this but at least everyone else is smart enough to shut their mouths.
ReplyDeleteIt's sad and pathetic. I hope black women with money (Oprah, Beyonce, Condi, Angela B., Mary J)boycott his worthless designs. even if he does feel this way it is just rude and offensive to say out loud. I think most white people smell like wet dogs but I do not tell my white friends this.
ReplyDeleteI think alot of designers do this he just voiced it.True you do design for all sizes but when prsesnting them you want thin models because it will look like the clothes are on hangers. Its the genre hes in in high fashion you want thin models, polo has more of a athletic built, victorias secret has curvier sizes. etc.... Its a preference.
ReplyDeletei hate narrow minded ppl lyk dis. it rly jarrs me! hes so stupid, black ppl wud probably make his clothes luk 10 times betta dan ne caucasian woman can. clothes look bettr wiv shape, n black women carry shape. kmt, i wish i cud giv dat eediat a piece of my mind lol
ReplyDelete.x.
It's perfectly fine that he has a body preference for his designs, what bothers me is that clearly it's about race. Black women come in different sizes/shapes and it varies by region and country. Yes, African American woman typically aren't a size 2 but neither are most white American woman (I believe average is 12). Some of the tallest, skinniest women I've seen are straight out of Africa, many Africans are quite slim. Clearly his white models don't represent the average white woman, but that doesn't stop him from finding the exceptions so why can't he do that with black models?
ReplyDeleteAfrica and the Caribbean have lots of tall, thin and beautiful black woman.
Does he really expect us to believe that the modeling agencies only have Beyonce-esque black models? Hell, even Destiny's child had two skinny, buttless chicks and they were both black.
Why are y'all validating his statement by saying he doesn't design for our bodies. His excuse in the first place is wrong, most white women aren't a size 0 either, and if he wanted to find skinny black women he could, all the African chicks at my job are skinny! Not all black women are curvy, some are skinny and many have weight but no shape/curves. If Mr. Pilati wanted to find skinny, beautiful black models he could. I for one know that my weight isn't dictated by my race, but by what I put in my mouth.
ReplyDeleteOke his opion was wrong .
ReplyDeleteBut I can see where he's coming from I live in the Netherlands and here there our not a lot of black people but still the designers want "etnic" women so then the model agency go search for black girls and then because there are so little that fit the very description : stunning , very thin, longer then 1.75 meter, and who wants to do the job . They cant be to picky so they loosen up the qualifications just to get black girls and then the girls thend to be curvier (and there noting wrong with that, it just isnt High fashion). So I still dont totally agree with him but I can understand were he coming from .
ANOTHER SAD CASE OF IRRATIONALIZING THE USE OF MORE WHIT THAN BLACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteWhen you're looking at an industry run by gay European men who design clothes with bodies like young pubescent boys then I am not shocked at all by Pilati's comments. The fashion industry has been Eurocentric, unrealistic, and damaging to women's bodies, esteem, and pockets from the get go (esp. haute couture). Think about Marie Antoinette's ateliers putting rice powder on her face and her hairdressers displaying food in her wigs while French men and women were starving. Pilati is simply keeping the tradition alive. Sad indeed . . .
ReplyDeleteI wonder what sisters will be boycotting there YSL Tributes.
ReplyDeletethe pumps.
*eh* probably no one.
He has some validity in his statements, however not ALL black women are hippy so he can find one, maybe he doesn't want to go on a scavenger hunt.. but we do all know sliding in and out of clothes with hips takes time and with the fast paced environment of fashion shows I understand why no one wants it, but all he has to do is put them in a size up... all the runway girls never really fill the clothes out that well anyway.
WHAT ABOUT THE STATEMENT THAT BEAUTIFUL BLACK WOMEN ARE HARD TO FIND? TOTAL BULLSHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeletetypical... a bigoted point of view, .. i think women of colour have the best shapes with the right curves and men worldwide appreciate this, thats why women like Beyonce, J-LO, Jessica Alba, Rihanna keep getting the sexiest women alive awards ... who cares what Paliti or whatever his name is thinks... let the rich, highly placed women like Oprah and co boycott his designs and publish statements like what he just said for other women to boycott and lets see what he says about that... but like i saying... people will always try and impress their opinions on us... its up to us to ignore them... just like i am glad a lot of designers are beginning to do, fashion is made for variety...it should not be stream lined towards a particular type of body or look, thats what the beauty of fashion is all about.. personally i don't care what he thinks... we have powerful black designers coming out too and soon the thin-waiflike look will begin to be seen for what it is..malnurished and depraved... besides i don't get it, when drought and famine hits a nation and people are forced to starve, pictures of these starved people are pasted on CNN and co and relief is sent through them, funds are set up... yet the models are starving themselves to look like these people who would have given anything to eat a good square meal...just goes to show the manner in which the world thinks...very sad and pathetic
ReplyDeletewow
ReplyDeletethis is disgusting
and for him to be a notarized designer in the industry, making or breaking whether women can get work... i'm appauled.
this just goes to show you that racism is a live and well across the world. to find excuses to not hire black models should be unacceptable as a designer and as a human being.
My thoughts are , that your article is improperly titled , how about "pilati of ysl "does not like black people , that is why the collection tanks each time ...
ReplyDeleteNow it seems from your posters your having people think it was
the "master ysl saying that" .
Its a lie.. you can buy the criterion or sundance dvd where u can hear ysl talk him self about black models , he loved them .. this stupid pilati , is a dummy , and can't do anything for ysl .. actually they should not even let him speak.
ALSO YSL DOES NOT OWN THE COMPANY ANYMORE ,
" In 1993, the Saint-Laurent fashion house was sold to the pharmaceuticals company Sanofi for approximately $600,000,000. In 1999, Gucci bought the YSL brand and Tom Ford designed the ready-to-wear collection while Saint-Laurent designed the haute couture collection. Since his retirement in 1998 Saint-Laurent has become increasingly reclusive and has spent a much of his time at his house in Marrakech, Morocco"
Morocco = black people , why would he retire there if he did not like black people , or he just used them .. people can talk all the ish they want because ysl does not own the company anymore.
This is incredible....wow!
ReplyDeleteByrdParker if YSL, the Gucci Group or whatever are employing someone who thinks like this then they need to fire him if they do not want his opinions representing their company. Simple as that.
ReplyDeleteI agree. At the end of the day the YSL brand is being compromised and when you work for a company you represent them. So I'm not sure how seperating YSL from the group that owns them ultimately means anything. Maybe YSL has supported black models in the past but right now that is not the case.
ReplyDeleteSo disturbing! This took me back to high school when a so-called friend to me "You are such a beautiful black girl, and you know there aren't too many of those around." WTF!! Am I missing something?
ReplyDeleteI agree 100% that black women with the buying power to boycott this label should do just that! And models like the GORGEOUS Liya Kibede and Alek Wek should boycott his shows.
ysl does not own the company . and its black people yes us , the number one consumer who help to keep all of these racists in business.
ReplyDeletei would like to know how many target black execs are there or the limited stores....
while your blog caters to black people , most of the clothes they wear are probably produced by racist companies . This should not come as a shock to you .
i simply said title the article correctly .
also half the black companies don't even employ 50% black ,. so it is all relative ...
again ysl is the first designer ever to use black models , he helped usher in black models to mainstream fashion . as far as pillati and the ysl company not the man , again i am not surprised.
Oh I missed something
ReplyDelete"Finding Beautiful Black Women is Hard"
man if he doesn't get the heck out of here.. I told my mother when it aired and I'll say it today (no offense to any other culture)
But the audience at the NAACP Image Awards this year... was better looking than any audience the entire award show season.
he proves exactly why this is overlooked. Because so many white people are STILL racists!
ridiculous!!
ReplyDeleteI have read the posts that have been written, in what Pilati, said about not being able to find beautiful black women that is absolute rubbish because they are very where and all over the place, and like someone said Yves no longer owns the house, so i don't think its fair for all of us to vindicate him, Pilati is simply an employee of the Gucci group and whether we like it or not the Italians are very very racist, so its no wonder that he would come out with such a myopic view.
ReplyDeleteHowever from the business point of view realistically wether we would like to admit it to our selves we black people are not YSL's main clientel,andom a business perspective, they are going to use models that appeal to their clients that are willing to drop £500 on a single blouse, so in not using the black models to an extent i do get where they are coming from, i am a black African lady, a size 6-8uk but i have a big butt naturally because i am African, I absolutely love and i look good in clothes but i would not necessarily sell clothes to a white woman who has more spending power than me.
My point in this very long post is yes what he said about beautiful black women being far and in between is absolute rubbish, but from a business perspective as to why not many black models are used is down to a simple economic imbalace in society.
This is pure BS. There are plently of black models who have 34 inch hips. Furthermore, East African women have a tendancy to be very slim(notice how many black models are coming from there), so his model booker could go to Sudan,Kenya and Ethopia and find plently of tall thin women to fill out his clothes perfectly.
ReplyDeleteI liked YSL while Tom Ford was there, shame I won't be buying any YSL bags anytime soon.
Have you noticed that Mucia Prada never uses black models. For the life of me I can't understand why black celebrities still wear her clothes.
Ignorance. Not all black woman are shaped the same, and not all caucasian women have the proportions of "run way " models. Real women are the ones that wear that buy the clothes.
ReplyDeleteThat is some bull!
ReplyDeletespeaking as an inspiring supermodel with 36" hips, and proud of them, it makes me angry to read this.
ReplyDeletethis solidifies the fact that the world of fashion needs to be changed. i'd rather see no blacks walking for this man than sticking fingers down their own throats like the white girls on his runway.
its time for a revolution!
This is really sad.
ReplyDeleteI don't get the point of "fashion", especially "high fashion" anymore. Most women, of any race, can not wear the clothes that are found on the runways. And it's not just about sizes. Even scaled up, the styles of clothes popularized and promoted on the runways and in magazines do not flatter women with any sort of curves. I'm not even sure that they are really made for women, so much as prepubescent girls who - probably - can't afford those clothes anyways. Most of the clothes aren't even beautiful in and of themselves. I get the idea of glamour and "What is possible?" but the models aren't even that pretty most of the time. Many of them look sickly. I don't want to look like those models. Sometimes I think that designers choose the models they do to save on fabric costs and make sure that the model doesn't draw any attention away from the clothes.
Meanwhile, some designers make millions and become famous by duping way too many women into wearing the newest fads even when they look AWFUL on them.
That is why I am a "style" blogger, not a "fashion" blogger.
What's so wrong with big hips. I'm a size 0 on top and size 6 on the bottom at the Gap. I know that sounds really out of proportion but that's how God made me. If beautiful means looking like a prepubescent boy then I'll look "ugly" anyday!
ReplyDeletewow that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes not just wafer thin, people have curves.. deal with it be open minded. And wasn't Tyra Banks like a trillion years ago the face of YSL & Liya Kebbe?
ReplyDeleteI understand that clothes need to fit the models a certain way but why exclude black women completly? Is it really that hard in France, where there are plenty of black women, to find at least one to represent? I'm doubtful :( If so, work with an agency nearby like London.
ReplyDeleteI hate that people have to generalize all black women...is society going backwards?
ReplyDeleteugh, i'll never consider buying anything ysl after that.
The person to blame for this "black stare" look is Muccia Prada. Vogue did a story two months ago about how Prada has people scouting the world for girls who look like Sasha & Gemma. The want plain, doe eye, blond girls with blank stares to make the clothes pop.
ReplyDeleteSo many good points raised about the fashion world and body image.
ReplyDeleteWe need fashion to celebrate beauty in diversity.
Couturiers have a role to play when it comes to embracing the beauty found in the variety of womanly shapes from Beyonce, to Halle Berry, to Genevieve Jones, Jada Pinkett Smith and you and me!
"It's perfectly fine that he has a body preference for his designs, what bothers me is that clearly it's about race. Black women come in different sizes/shapes and it varies by region and country. Yes, African American woman typically aren't a size 2 but neither are most white American woman (I believe average is 12). Some of the tallest, skinniest women I've seen are straight out of Africa, many Africans are quite slim. Clearly his white models don't represent the average white woman, but that doesn't stop him from finding the exceptions so why can't he do that with black models?
ReplyDeleteAfrica and the Caribbean have lots of tall, thin and beautiful black woman.
Does he really expect us to believe that the modeling agencies only have Beyonce-esque black models? Hell, even Destiny's child had two skinny, buttless chicks and they were both black."
I agree to the millionth degree!! And YSL is off my list of fashion loves.
And to think I was dreaming of a Muse bag....Stefano Pilati can't find beautiful Black women, huh? I think I should go to Italy and show him one up close and personal. Most companies don't feature Black models at their shows or in advertising--Andre Leon Talley has been dropping this knowledge in Vogue every season. But hell, even they only featured one Black model on their "New Supermodels" cover-Chanel Iman. I don't get the allure of lightbulb head Gemma Ward and the emptiness in the eyes of the others. Anorexic zombies don't convince me to want the clothes. They distract me because they look like friggin aliens! Not cute. Let the ban on YSL commence! Peace
ReplyDeletei'm a designer myself and i find this statement just plain disgusting. he's an insult to the industry
ReplyDeleteSOME ONE NEEDS TO TAP KANYE AND TELL HIM TO RE-THINK HIS YSL CLOTHING....I AM GLAD I CANT AFFORD IT
ReplyDeleteWhite men prefer women with nothing on their bones and disgustingly skinny because they don't have any body to offer the women themselves and cannot please a woman that is normal size. White men are inferior, so they need a woman who is transparent in body proportion to feel good about themselves. Overall, white women will never have the beautiful, feminine bodies as African American women, so they have created another pseudo-ideal body image in which they know African American women would never want to uphold. It is plain sick to see skinny White women. Real men do not really subscribe to the idea of skinny-white women.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately most Black celebrities and rich support the system that supports them. They don't buck the system. They will continue to buy from racist white designers who think of Black women in terms of fads and trends of the season.
ReplyDeleteAlso white women go to doctors to have their hip fat removed. Then here comes J Low and suddenly big buts are in, well that is unless you're a black woman and its natural. LOL.