Loulou & Yves

Loulou de la Falaise was one of the most important women in the history of twentieth century fashion. Born in England into a family of aesthetes with a father who was a count and a mother, Maxine, who was a tornado of artistic flamboyance, Loulou's Bohemian spirit coupled with her unerring sense of style brought her to the attention of Yves Saint Laurent. She became his muse, and the rest is history. Working alongside him, pushing and prodding the troubled genius to the next collection, and the next, and the next, she was indispensable to him in Paris, in Tangier, in New York-in short wherever he went. In Loulou & Yves, Christopher Petkanas assembles almost every important figure in twentieth century fashion and art to tell her story: Andre Leon Talley, Hamish Bowles, Grace Coddington, Ines de la Fressange, Betty Catroux, Suzy Menkes, Ricardo Bofill, Robert Mapplethorpe, John Richardson, Yves St. Laurent, and Loulou herself. Just as George Plimpton evoked Edie Sedgewick in his brilliant oral biography Edie, Petkanas brings all of these people together for a cocktail party that swirls around one of the most brilliant women the fashion world has ever known. No one interested in fashion, style, or the high-flying gossip of the twentieth century will want to miss this endless feast called Loulou & Yves.

“"... the high-fashion world of yesteryear... has been brought back to life in a compulsively readable oral history, Loulou & Yves: The Untold Story of Loulou de La Falaise and the House of Saint Laurent --though that tome likewise has some lessons we might all take on board. "The book, written by Christopher Petkanas, is full of juicy gossip about the super-decadent fashion scene in the 1970s and ''80s. His subject, for those who don''t know, was Yves Saint Laurent''s incredibly glamorous ''muse.'' And in telling her story, Mr. Petkanas raises some pretty serious questions about that bizarre job title, which exists as far as I can tell in no other industry, and provides great perks but no professional security. "So what does it really mean to be a designer''s ''muse''? Read the book and find out. It''s great information in the guise of nonfiction escapism. Though, honestly, afterward you may think you couldn''t make it up it you''d tried."--Vanessa Friedman, The New York Times "The legendary LouLou de la Falaise and Thadee Klossowski... Paloma Picasso and Bianca Jagger... the late Pierre Berge and Yves Saint Laurent... Baronne Guy de Rothschild, social queen of Paris! Read all about these sacred monsters in Christopher Petkanas[''s] LouLou and Yves . This book is an oral biography of Paris fashion between the glittering years when LouLou was the light between all the characters! It''s a modern Balzac history! You will want to give the book and also read it. It soars! It roars! Petkanas has achieved in this book, a smash artistic hit... absorb[ing] you in the history of high fashion in the 70s."--Andr”

"Loulou de La Falaise was "a cross between Holly Golightly and Sally Bowles," in the words of André Leon Talley -- though you might also think of her as Cosette from "Les Misérables," grown up to become the heroine of a Jackie Collins novel. A paragon of effortless glamour, Loulou twice married well ("I am not a gold digger or anything like that, but I usually do manage to get a castle. ... My two husbands both have fabulous ones") and, living a life brimming with sex, drugs and cosmopolitan éclat, charmed her way to the top of the international fashion order by becoming the longtime muse to Yves Saint Laurent, who imbued his designs with her turbans-and-tunics chic only to leave her with nothing.

Petkanas opts for oral history, letting de La Falaise (who died in 2011) and her flashy circle tell her tale. What results is an affirmation of both the fashion industry as a pit of facile, well-accessorized vipers and the fascination that de La Falaise engendered, due not only to her role as haute gamine but to her indifference to the whole glittering shebang. The more she telegraphed that she didn't care, the more they did. The book -- assembled from 153 original interviews, along with countless excerpts from letters, diary entries, articles and other ephemera -- takes the reader on a dizzying carousel ride around hundreds of boldface European names and the details of their louche lives in the '70s and '80s. Even for those not invested in the minutiae of the jet set, it's a literary champagne cocktail that goes down easy as it sloshes from quote to quote, each one scandalous, wry, vicious, knowing or salacious, and often all five. Petkanas delivers a meticulous dissection of our endless fascination with the modish, bewitching women who refuse to let us in, and upon whom we project our fantasies, desires, even our hatred."

--Michael Callahan, The New York Times Book Review

"... the high-fashion world of yesteryear... has been brought back to life in a compulsively readable oral history, Loulou & Yves: The Untold Story of Loulou de La Falaise and the House of Saint Laurent--though that tome likewise has some lessons we might all take on board... So what does it really mean to be a designer's 'muse'? Read the book and find out."--Vanessa Friedman, The New York Times

"The legendary LouLou de la Falaise and Thadee Klossowski... Paloma Picasso and Bianca Jagger... the late Pierre Berge and Yves Saint Laurent... Baronne Guy de Rothschild, social queen of Paris! Read all about these sacred monsters in Christopher Petkanas['s] LouLou and Yves. This book is an oral biography of Paris fashion between the glittering years when LouLou was the light between all the characters! It's a modern Balzac history! You will want to give the book and also read it. It soars! It roars! Petkanas has achieved in this book, a smash artistic hit... absorb[ing] you in the history of high fashion in the 70s."--André Leon Talley, fashion journalist and subject of the documentary "The World According to André"

"Red-hot."--Fern Mallis, host of "Fashion Icons with Fern Mallis" at the 92nd Street Y, NYC

"A must read!"--Sandra Bernhard, actress, comedian and host of Sandyland on SiriusXM

"... at 495 pages, [Loulou & Yves] will no doubt prove essential reading for anyone fascinated with the Saint Laurent legend." --Joelle Diderich, Women's Wear Daily

"[Loulou & Yves] ruffles fancy feathers."--Richard Johnson, New York Post

"Like all good biographies, Loulou & Yves... is a portrait of not just its subject... but of her place and time... The result is a crackling good read with a pleasing superabundance of salt, wit and dish; even the contributor bios are snarky."--Nell Baram, Shelf Awareness, MainStreet BookEnds

"For 30 years, [Loulou de La Falaise] helped Saint Laurent see things through rose-coloured glasses. A new book reveals why the troubled designer was drawn to his right-hand woman's more-is-more style... As detailed in Christopher Petkanas's... Loulou & Yves, De la Falaise was by Yves Saint Laurent's side for 30 years."--Lauren Cochrane, The Guardian

"From the book: 'On the theory that everyone loves a cocktail party, and because people with a drink in their hand tend to be candid, Loulou & Yves traces Loulou's life chronologically through the memories of more than two hundred voices: husbands, lovers, extended family, friends, enemies, slightly less bitter detractors, colleagues, groupies, Yves, pundits, hangers-on and Grace Jones.' The good news is that you are all invited to eavesdrop on every morsel of information and tidbit of gossip that so many so freely offer at this 'party.'
--Jeffrey Felner, New York Journal of Books

Christopher Petkanas is an American author and journalist who has written for The New York Times, Vogue, and Architectural Digest. He knew and wrote about Loulou de La Falaise during the many years he lived in France, starting in the early '80s. He currently resides in New York City.

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