This Monday evening, Catherine Deneuve answered questions from Loïc Prigent at Christie's about her collaboration and her friendship with Yves Saint Laurent. The pieces he created for her will go on sale on January 24.
"I have the impression of having witnessed a historic moment" will say to him, at the end, a member of the public. Catherine Deneuve bursts out laughing. Throughout her interview with a small committee (which ranged from Sigourney Weaver to Elie Top, etc.) by journalist Loïc Prigent, she insisted on staying light. very light” she even told him at one point: “These are not works of art. Objects of art no doubt…”.
The dress she wore when she met Hitchcock
This historic moment, therefore, was held last night in the basement salons of the Christie's auction house, 9 avenue Matignon in Paris, which will auction on Thursday January 24 a very large part of the Yves Saint Laurent wardrobe of Catherine Deneuve. This one is on display two floors above, hundreds of pieces: suits of all colors, green satin sandals - her favorite color, she had a lot of acid green dresses made at YSL -, black, fushia , an entire room in pink and black, a room in shades of white, a room in black tuxedos, another in evening dresses, including her favourite, a long black satin sheath adorned with two cream aigrettes ("a little years thirty, which makes it timeless”), the pearl dress (“which weighed at least twenty kilos!”) that she wore when she met Hitchcock at a cocktail party where she had gone with François Truffaut. “Yes, well, I only met him for a few seconds. Because it was fixed on film, it looks like it lasted for hours… but no! »
With a smile, with an elegant casualness, Catherine Deneuve will spend thirty minutes to break the myth, to play down everything to bring everything back to life, in a salutary gesture. From the start, she laughs that she comes directly from the shooting of Burger Quiz. Hyper alive while Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé are dead, she still dresses at Saint Laurent. “Today's (by Anthony Vaccarello – ndla)”, evidenced by the tuxedo jacket she wore that evening, with wide lapels covered in sequins.
A first white dress edged in red
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Between her and Yves, everything started when her husband at the time, the English photographer David Bailey who reigned over Swinging London, on the lookout for interesting young designers, advised her to go get dressed by the young Yves for her presentation evening to the Queen, alongside other actresses including Julie Christie. At the start of 1960, Saint Laurent did not yet have the aura it was about to acquire. It was her seamstresses who then took care of the young girl, who arrived with a photo from the previous collection (Russian). Her first Saint Laurent dress will be white and edged in red and will mark a collaboration, on screen as well as in the city, which will last until 2002 and the couturier's farewell. “If I were the muse of Saint Laurent? Nope ! Loïc Prigent insists: “How do you see your role at Saint Laurent? ". Deneuve: “My role? Actress ! ". A glint of mischief makes her eye curl and the audience laughs with her. We understand why Saint Laurent will gradually become the friend of the woman, and will not stop dressing the actress, from the film Belle de jour by Luis Bunuel. She is the one who suggests her name to Bunuel for the costumes. "What year was it?" asks Prigent. Deneuve hesitates, she will admit later not to be very gifted for the years. “1965! breathes Inès de la Fressange sitting in the front row, tapered in a dark green velvet suit. Yves Saint Laurent had the genius to imagine a strict, severe, ultra-elegant bourgeois wardrobe to dress the young heroine going into prostitution every afternoon, thus adding mystery and eroticism to the character. "We all dressed in mini-skirts," recalls the actress. “From then on, by creating clothes that were a little longer, stricter, that we could still wear today, it made the film timeless”.
A family atmosphere
From Belle de Jour, she only kept the raincoat – the rest is with the Yves Saint Laurent Foundation. From the Mississippi Mermaid, only a capeline and a dress, which she donated to a museum. The sunbonnet is upstairs. Not far away, a long dress in brown chiffon with a collar lined with a boa, which she wore, sublime, during an evening with the no less sublime Marcello Mastroiani. Each outfit required four or five fittings, and Deneuve speaks with joy and emotion of the complicity that united her with the small hands, at the First Workshops, small cocktails in the studios for Sainte-Catherine. “Everything was done very spontaneously. The atmosphere was family”
Loïc Prigent returns several times during the interview on the loyalty of the star to Saint Laurent. Deneuve ends up cracking up: “loyalty, loyalty, you know, it's not very interesting! It's just that Yves Saint Laurent was the designer who corresponded to him in everything: "Simple and elegant, a bit strict, and erotic in the evening with transparent blouses", a bit like one would say: because it was him , because it was her. She kept some pieces, including tuxedos. The rest of the clothes? The rest, it happened a bit like everything happens in life: “I gave it away. I damaged it. I lost…”.
Nelly Kaprielian
Exhibition until January 24 morning (included). Bidding starts at 2 p.m. Christie's, 9 avenue Matignon, 75008 Paris. www.christies.com
