A veritable diamond in the rough will soon be unveiled for all to see. On October 14th, Danielle Luquet de Saint-Germain, retired model, will be putting her private collection of Haute Couture and ready-to-wear pieces, one of the most significant of the late 20th-century, up for auction at the Hotel Drouot in Paris.
Yves Saint-Laurent muse from 1965 to 1968 despite the fact that models come and go quicker than the seasons pass, Danielle Luquet inspired the designer to create some of his most mythic pieces. The female “smoking”? That was Danielle. “One morning, I arrived at the same time as Yves, dressed in pants and a men’s trench coat. When I went up to the studio after the presentation of the collection, he asked me if I could put my outfit at his disposal for him to get inspiration from it.” When she walked the runway for the first time in the suit in 1966, Danielle threw the jacket over her shoulder, revealing a chiffon blouse that was anything BUT a veil of modesty. The Female body appeared, its most beautiful attributes subtly brought out. All those gathered there were blown away. After 10 years of collaboration, the muse left the brand to become artistic advisor at Christian Dior, then went on to work for Claude Montana. She still continued to inspire, though. Françoise Sternach, member of the UFE, French society of art and antiquities experts, declared, “I know that everyone will concentrate on the YSL pieces, which are magnificent, but I can tell you that there are Claude Montana dresses that would have never existed without her. They’re punctual, specially conceived for her.”
From season to season, she collected the most beautiful creations by designers from Yves Saint-Laurent to Christian Lacroix, Thierry Mugler to Azzedine Alaïa. Mythic pieces from the 70s to the 2000s, collected with the greatest of care for the sake of Beauty, but also because of what each of them bore witness to. Speaking more than the weight of words, some of them attest to the drastic changes that saw the light of day in the second half of the 20th-century. Coco Chanel said that fashion didn’t exist if it didn’t make it into the streets. Saint-Laurent proved that it’s sometimes the street that comes to fashion. In 1968, the streets roared as the youth tore them up to create their own path. Even though pants were still considered inappropriate for women, the designer hijacked the hunting suit, a virile garment, to turn it into an urban classic of the feminine dress code: the Safari jacket that he created on Danielle Luquet de Saint-Germain’s back.
This fall more than 350 pieces will be presented, first during a public exhibit from October 2nd to the 5th at the Hôtel Drouot, then during the auction on the 14th. Among them, the famous satin “Picasso” dress by Yves Saint-Laurent, with an estimated value between 10,000-12,000€, or the bold chiffon and ostrich feather veiled dress, valued at around 13,000€. It remains a mystery why Danielle Luquet de Saint-Germain suddenly decided to part ways with these treasures that she so carefully kept behind the closed doors of her 500m² dressing room, transformed throughout time into a temple of Fashion.
Leave a Reply