The Good Life France Magazine




The Good Life France Magazine brings you the best of France - inspirational and exclusive features, fabulous photos, mouth-watering recipes, tips, guides, ideas and much more...


Published by the award winning team at The Good Life France

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Autumn 2023

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Brimming with fabulous features and stunning photos, inspiring destination guides, scrumptious recipes, history, culture and much, much more: Discover Provence, Ariege, Brittany, Normandy, Burgundy and Bordeaux, explore southern and northern France, secret places and exquisite castles. Bringing France to you - wherever you are.

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prestigious international design contest and when a Vogue magazine executive showed Christian Dior some of the schoolboy’s sketches, Dior hired him immediately as his assistant. He was 17 years old. Dior died in 1957 and Yves Saint-Laurent was named head of the House of Dior at just 21 and exploded onto the fashion scene. In 1962 he opened his own fashion house and became one of the most influential Paris designers. He made trousers and the tuxedo (Le Smoking in France) fashionable for women, created Mondrian-inspired shift dresses and many more looks that defined the fashions of the 1960s until he retired in 2002 and which continue long past his demise. One of his most enduring themes was that of transparency. Transparent fabrics were prominent in his late 1960’s collections. Sometimes his designs were seen as scandalous and shocking as he pushed couture to new extremes but ultimately influenced fashions of the late 20th century and into the 21st century. A flick through images of gowns worn by Hollywood glitterati at big events this year reveals just how much the transparent look is still a big theme. The exhibition is astounding – some 60 original outfits (10 of which belong to the Museum), original sketches, collection boards, swatches of material and invoices give an intimate window to the designs. Wonderful photographs of models and clients such as Catherine Deneuve wearing Saint-Laurent, together with anecdotes plus catwalk film footage bring to life the designer’s creations in a way that still shocks at times, but in which you can’t help but fail to see just how incredibly sophisticated the designs were and the exquisite tailoring that made him the King of fashion for decades. I could easily imagine Lady Gaga or Dua Lipa wearing just about anything and everything in the show. From topless blouses to barely covered bottoms in gorgeous evening gowns using lace and sheer materials. “Transparences” presents an incredible window into the world of one of France’s top “Nothing is more beautiful than a naked body,” the late couturier once declared. “A nude woman’s body, that I have to dress without hindering the freedom of her natural movements. In short, my profession is a loving dialogue with this naked woman, using all the magic of my rolls of fabric.” Yves Saint Laurent Handwritten note kept at the Yves Saint Laurent Museum in Paris. designers showing how he worked to ‘reveal’ the body of the woman wearing his costume with both elegance – and audacity. Dresses that look demure from the front, astonish when you see the back, the derriere barely covered by sheer Chantilly lace. Sublimely cut robes with bodice inserts, evening and day wear that pushed the boundaries of design and required a daring customer – though these outfits were impactful, you were unlikely to see many women wearing the more daring costumes out in public. The Nude Dress of 1968, made entirely of transparent chiffon provided ‘modesty’ in the form of ostrich feathers. Even in 2010 when French model/actress Laetita Casta wore a transparent 1968 Saint-Laurent dress – it caused a sensation. This is an outstanding exhibition, an astonishing collection and a fascinating window into French haute-couture and fashion history. Evening gown. 1980 Spring-Summer haute couture collection. Photograph by Patricia Canino.© Yves Saint Laurent. Collection Cité de la dentelle et de la mode ©Patricia Canino llustrative sketch of a “smoking” from the 1968 Spring-Summer haute couture collection created by Yves Saint Laurent in 1983 for the catalogue for the exhibition Yves Saint Laurent 25 Years of Design at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. © Yves Saint Laurent Calais Museum of Lace and Fashion Calais became famous for its lace making in the 19th Century when English lace makers, famous for their lacemaking, smuggled one of their new-fangled looms into France and set up shop at Saint-Pierre just a stone’s throw from the museum. The Anglo-French collaboration was immensely successful and completely transformed the French lace making industry which had previously been handmade only. Calais lace and tulle became renowned, desired by the rich, famous and royalty, and the lace making industry in Calais employed some 40,000 workers in its heyday. Today Calais is still an important centre for the production of lace and is much sought after. Clients of Calais lace include Valentino, Jean Paul Gaultier, Lacroix and Calvin Klein, and the majority of the lace produce is exported to countries around the world to be 68 | The Good Life France The Good Life France | 69