Ford's fond farewell

Agatha Belinda, Contributor, Jakarta

One hundred and seventeen square meters is the size of the brand new Yves Saint Laurent (YSL) flagship boutique in Plaza Indonesia.

It is the latest enticement from PT Graha Citra Prima, the local license holder of Gucci group, owner of YSL, to seduce the city's well-dressed ladies who lunch into -- gasp -- buying yet another very expensive bag.

With the right buzz, selling luxury goods with matching price tags in this supposedly struggling country hardly makes a Botox- friendly forehead frown. The forecast for the luxury goods market in Indonesia, so I was told by a trusted investment banker, "is stable, volume is low but outlook looks good near term".

For the few who don't know about the recent departure of YSL's beloved creative director, Tom Ford, he reportedly quit due to failed contract renewal negotiations (over salary as well as creative control) with Gucci Group's strategic alliance and now majority owner, Pinault-Printemps-Redoute (PPR).

Ford was truly instrumental in the company's growth, steering the prestigious but outdated house of the namesake legendary designer back to hot status.

His exit was the biggest drama in the fashion scene of recent times. Thus, the decision to open the boutique at this vulnerable time raised a few eyebrows.

At the grand opening at the end of August at La Moda Cafe, right across from the boutique, guests were treated to the YSL Rive Gauche fall/winter 2004-05 collection. The show in Paris had brought out major celebrities and famous fans, including fellow designers Diane Von Furstenberg, Valentino and Stella McCartney, to show their support and appreciation of Ford.

Everyone knew it was going to be a historic collection, Ford's final statement before he bid goodbye to the fashion world and said hello to Hollywood to try acting.

Ford took over at YSL as creative director and ready-to-wear communication director after Gucci Group NV took control of the house in 1999. From the start, it was clear it would be a mighty difficult challenge, especially since Monsieur Saint Laurent strongly disapproved of his successor and was tres outspoken about it.

Tom Ford being Tom Ford, somehow managed to pull the same magic trick at YSL as the one he did for the House of Gucci about a decade ago: cranking up his own psychic, sensible sensuality versions of vintage YSL collections.

For his grand finale, the 42-year-old designer channeled the 1977 Chinese collection (the house is also relaunching its highly popular Opium perfume from the era, most probably not by coincidence), which was, as he explained to Style.com, "a period (he) hadn't mined".

Let's get on with the show, shall we?

The collection -- as usual -- was beautiful, poised, delightfully elegant, with that definitive hidden sexuality. Ford's take on chinoiserie is simply genius; it's a wonder why no one here ever thought of it before, and why he did not do it sooner.

There were actually two shows, the opening one for accessories and the latter for women's ready-to-wear. The Rive Gauche show opened with a beautiful 1950s power suit silhouette, consisting of a deep brown silk Mao jacket paired with ultraslim waxed silk satin skirt in slate blue and brown fur wedges, with razor thin heels.

Gradually, the shoulders got bigger and higher, an homage to Yves's original pagoda shoulder, except this time rounder and more dramatic. It was cut to resemble a Chinese Red Army double breasted blazer/button jacket, complete with silk combat pants and killer knee high leather boots that would look just as cool on you as they would on Cameron Diaz.

If they were a bit too masculine for all you princesses, well, don't worry. There were super-feminine, different versions of bias cut, Chinois dresses that could make any ugly duckling into a swan.

Exquisite dragons, fans and fish prints got sequined, and feathers were laser cut, then sewn into fish scales to decorate the dresses, taking about 1,400 hours to finish.

Clever jewel color combinations -- crimson and scarlet, jade against lime, plum and pink -- added playfulness without losing sophistication. Furs (fox and mink) were sprinkled into dress hemlines and collars and trimmed on coats to add to the luscious mood, while bags and shoes were mostly of velvet, snakeskin and suede. One of everything, please!

Texan-born Ford admits that he owes his critical and commercial success to two things: energy and instinct.

"There are many more talented designers than me. But I have a lot of drive and won't let it go," he said at the V&A in London.

"I'm lucky, I have mass-market tastes. When I say I like a shoe, generally thousands of people will like it. Thank God, because I would have been a very unhappy person if I hadn't had this kind of success."

Indeed. Ford will be as hard an act to follow as his predecessor, if not harder.

In the luxury business, it requires much more than talent to succeed. The embodiment of the designer often helps -- if not makes -- the sell. Problem is not many designers have the charisma or sex appeal that goes along with the smarts and talent. Only one other designer has been able to pull the same stunt twice like Ford did for Gucci and YSL: The one and only Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel and Fendi.

After much consideration and negotiations (rumored candidates included McCartney, Alexander McQueen and Zac Posen), PPR finally gave the hot seat to Stefano Pilatti (whose previous position was YSL's design director for women's ready-to-wear).

"We are not worried about Tom Ford leaving the company because we know that they have a very solid creative team and Stefano Pilatti, the new designer, is not somebody from outside," explained Santi Suhud, PR manager for YSL.

"He used to work under Tom Ford's guidance, so in a way he knows exactly what to do for the brand."

But on a Jakarta-Bali flight a couple of days later, I happened to sit next to a couple of cool brothers whose prominent socialite mother also attended the same show.

"Oh, what did she think of it?"

"She left five minutes into the show. She said she was bored."

Maybe she's got a point. The event was standard; the setting of the fashion show was blah and, unfortunately, didn't accentuate the beauty of the luxurious fabrics, the precise cut, the perfect finishing, the brilliant concept and first-class quality.

In fact, it was so far from the image that the house stands for. Also, except for Catherine Wilson, the models weren't quite up to par to carry the clothes. I found myself suddenly missing the usual pack of supermodels' familiar faces.

Perhaps it was all too modest for its own good. Tom Ford wouldn't have approved.