Lap of luxury: YSL boutique opens in Jakarta

Lap of luxury: YSL boutique opens in Jakarta

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the prestigious but outdated house of the namesake legendary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.