By Anoosha Barua
In fashion, the people who make, wear, and inspire the designs are as important as the shoes, bags, pants, and dresses themselves. Here, we take a look at some iconic muses and their partnership with these famous designers.
Jean-Louis Dumas, the artistic director of Hermés, took control of the company at a low point in time, but as soon as he arrived, he began shaking things up. He met the English actress Jane Birkin, his most famous muse, in a chance encounter on a flight from Paris to London when everything fell out of her bag. Jean-Louis Dumas was sitting next to her and told her she “should have [a bag] with pockets” and Birkin replied with: “The day Hermès make one with pockets I will have that.” Dumas replied “But I am Hermès and I will put pockets in for you.” The two collaborated and made a bag bigger than the Kelly. The ‘Birkin’ bag helped bring Hermés to its former glory, and is now one of the most highly demanded bags in the history of fashion.
A more modern designer and muse relationship is Kim Kardashian and Olivier Rousteing, the creative director of Balmain. He called Kim Kardashian “the perfect fashion muse for Balmain.” Kim’s flamboyant style is the perfect match for Rousteing’s creations since he likes to dress women with “different body shapes, different girls, different personalities and different backgrounds.” Kim embodies all these qualities and the two share a creative bond. Rousteing said “Fashion had started to forget women in a way, and concentrate too much on the clothes. For me it made no sense. In fashion, the biggest moment was when the models were celebrities.” He finds support in the fact that iconic French designers such as Dior, Poiret and Balenciaga all used strong women as muses as well, but Kim is not just any powerful celebrity, “She’s [his] friend, she’s a woman that [he] love[s] for different reasons.”
One of the most famous designer and muse relationships is Audrey Hepburn and Hubert de Givenchy. Hepburn was Givenchy's muse, friend, and biggest enthusiast. The two met while filming Hepburn's film Sabrina. After that, Givenchy went on to design her wardrobe in many movies including the iconic little black dress from Breakfast at Tiffany's. As Givenchy's greatest inspiration, Hepburn famously said of his work, "His are the only clothes in which I am myself." Audrey Hepburn’s 50-year reign as one of the most imitated fashion icons is credited to her simple chic style. She rotated the same few, failsafe pieces throughout her life: a little black dress, a pair of cropped slim trousers, a trench coat, oversized glasses, and round-neck sweater. Givenchy continues to design collections inspired by the famous actress, and is credited with creating one of the most famous dresses in the fashion industry: the little black dress Hepburn wore in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Yves Saint Laurent and Betty Catroux had an extremely close designer-muse relationship. In an interview with David Teboul, Catroux said “We were both very skinny, very pale, both platinum blondes with an androgynous side… I was his double.” Betty Catroux, a former model for Chanel -and allegedly baptized in perfume instead of holy water--met Saint Laurent at Régine’s nightclub in Paris in the start of his career. Similar to his other muses, Catroux was born into aristocracy, but she managed to retain a rebellious edge, this trait came to embody the YSL aesthetic. The close duo traveled the world together, visiting places such as Morocco and checking into rehab together. Betty Catroux had a unique style and was disinterested in fashion, but Yves Saint Laurent channelled this indifference into graceful designs that changed the world of fashion forever, their 35 years of collaboration brought the best out of Saint Laurent and their relationship formed the building blocks of contemporary women’s fashion.
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