Yves Saint Laurent Fall Winter 2012-13, Paris

Yves Saint Laurent Womenswear Collections Fall Winter 2012-13 - Smart coats nipped in by leather belts featuring exaggerated, rounded shoulders and more leather at the collar and cuff - it was elegant and modern, with cropped, roomy jackets and sharply tailored trousers worn high on the waist and cut above the ankle giving a nod to the Eighties heyday of YSL, while an black all-in-one tuxedo paid homage to the house’s Seventies fame.
Cape coats and leather tunic tops of purple or green leather had an austerity that eliminated a romance we’ve seen from Pilati before, while mirrored Perspex heels were eye-catching, if difficult to walk in – giving a more aggressive, though still stylish, feel to the show.

Chainmail featured heavily for backless dresses in green in purple that were elegantly constructed, or the lapels of black jackets, or a pencil skirt worn beneath another tunic of cream leather and, just as things were threatening to venture too far from the YSL roots, there appeared a calla lily motif embroidered in black silk onto black wool trousers; in glittering relief on black leather; in purple silk on the wide collar of a black coat or in solid silver wound around the neck in a gorgeous neck piece. It neatly brought romance back into the equation and, symbolic both of triumphant trumpets sounding and even the resurrection of Christ, it implied all sorts of potential stories to an audience hungry to know what is going to happen next in the soap opera that is Paris fashion.