Stefano Pilati

Stefano Pilati, Yves Saint Laurent's veritable spin doctor, knew how to impose his obsession with chic and lines without worrying about what people would say. Today, his success is complete: the clients adore his collections, the profits from which allow YSL to live again, and the Japanese just designated him the best stylist of 2008.

Although Yves Saint Laurent was first introduced to elegance in Oran, Tunisia (by observing the women of his entourage getting dressed), it was in Milan, Italy that young Pilati fell in love with fashion. An only son with two elder sisters, he was immersed in feminine frills and elegant dresses from a very young age. His mother, who attracted a lot of attention due to her own allure, quickly instilled the rules of elegance into her son.

The uptight nature of these rules would push the boy to take the initiative in fashion at a young age. At eight years, while in a chic boutique, he was given permission to create an outfit. The result: jacquard pants, red sweater, and pointed sneakers. Pilati's infatuation with fashion did not please his father, a government tax accountant, who pushed him to study geometry, which he considered much more auspicious than preparing for a career as a fashion designer.

Nevertheless, as Milan developed into an international stage for fashion, Pilati could not keep himself away from what was happening in his home city and abandoned his studies in order to have more time for his passion. At the age of 17, he received an apprenticeship at Cerruti and began his training. Destiny smiled upon him when, at the age of 20 and working in a velvet factory, a client named Giorgio Armani requested six variations of a single velvet. Pilati presented him with 130.

In 1993, he began working in Armani's design department as a men's' prêt-a-porter assistant, taking one step closer to the creation process of a collection, and discovered the basics of the trade. At Armani's side, he learned to balance modernity and style, to dress the man without disguising him. In 1995, he left his mentor for the Prada empire where he oversaw their production. Afterward, he was trusted with the position of assistant stylist at Miu Miu where he worked on the men's as well as the women's prêt-a-porter collections.

The year 2000 was a turning point for Pilati. Tom Ford (at the time YSL's artistic director) offered him the position of design director for women's prêt-a-porter. His sensitivity, his idea of the importance of line, his know-how and his experience quickly rendered him indispensable to YSL, and in 2002, he became the design director for all the Yves Saint Larent Rive Gauche lines.

In 2003, when the situation between Tom Ford and Monsieur Yves Saint Laurent was heating up (without denying Ford's talent, Yves Saint Laurent announced that Ford had not succeeded in capturing the essence of YSL), the names of the most en vogue designers were discussed as possible successors to the Texan stylist. What Yves Saint Laurent wished more than anything was that YSL would cease being an extension of Gucci and that its Parisian prêt-a-porter couture image be made over.

There were rumors that Viktor and Rolf were on the decision makers' short list, yet it was Pilati, who had already been working in the background for several years, that would take Ford's place under the spotlights. For someone who had always had a profound respect and veritable admiration for Yves Saint Laurent, this promotion was an immense and touching honor of which he hoped to be worthy.

The Tom Ford era was followed by a significantly more sober Pilati period, and the transition was a painful one. The first show was a failure. The press was not kind to the new arrival and remembered with regret the sexy Fordian suits, which were replaced by strange, inaccessible white dresses. The shareholders, thinking that Pilati and his over-intellectual creations would not be able to boost YSL Rive Gauche's financial health, and were biting their nails.

Nevertheless, having resolutely decided to break with the porn chic era and to erase the Tom Ford imprint on the Parisian house, Pilati continued down his path. Although everyone predicted a grim future for him, this shy prince charming with an iron will succeeded in winning back the fashion addicts with his second show, where he developed a wardrobe that was a far cry from the Ford's cool attitude and syrupy glamour. The look was austere, but austere had never been so desirable.

Starched blouses, gathered skirts, wide belts structuring a strong and incisive silhouette made this collection the starting point for Pilati's deification. This collection provided the long-awaited spark: all over the planet, the waiting lists grew, the stars began snapping up accessories, the Muse bag became the best seller of the season... Pilati had arrived. In 2006, he even succeeded in putting the house back in the black, which had not happened in many years.

"Reserved," "modest" and "shy" are adjectives that are often used to describe the artistic director of YSL. However, under this smooth and conventional surface hides a complex man, far removed from the male perfection image he likes to give himself.

It is true that, by simply placing "good taste" and "dignity" at the heart of his collections, he rehabilitated a code of elegance that was almost revolutionary. As opposed to Galliano, Pilati prefers taking away to adding on, and uses the YSL archives as his source of modernity.

Pilati is neither a reactionary, nor timid and backward-looking. Au contraire, he understood before everyone else that the future lies not in overselling grunge, but in the development of the line, the study of volumes, the return of chic, the supremacy of elegant couture. To renew and moreover, to impose these codes in the 21st century requires a real revolutionary, but then again, nothing less would be expected from a former punk.

By posing nude for Vogue and exposing his curious tattoos, Pilati revealed a crack in the surface, making it possible to peek at a part of his personality heretofore unknown. His office, decorated with a surfboard and a photo of Prince Charles, resembles the man who occupies it: he is atypical, somewhere between tradition and liberty. His Homme collections, directed at the happily carefree dandy, are also a piece of the Pilati puzzle, one that recognizes that when he envisions a man's wardrobe, he reflects first on what he would like to wear.

The mantra of this mysterious man who has succeeded in seducing very young luxury clients by bringing together austerity and audacity: "Today, provocation is to be classic."