Yves St. Debacle

A fashion writer's role, traditionally, is to lend a bit of tone to what otherwise might be a confusing free-for-all --namely, the Paris showings. As critiques of the latest fiasco boiled up last week, however, it was apparent that the fashion press had run totally out of patience with wispy Yves St. Laurent, long the sweetheart of haute couture.

Among his harsh critics was Eugenia Sheppard. "What a relief," she confided to her New York Post readers, "to write at last that a fashion collection is frankly, definitely and completely hideous." Chimed in the Guardian's Alison Adburgham: "A tour de force of bad taste . . . nothing could exceed the horror of this exercise in kitsch." The Daily Telegraph: "Nauseating"; France-Soir: "A great farce"; Le Figaro: "Un long gag." Women's Wear Daily, once Yves's leading fan, called his work "poor" and urged him to "shake off the weirdo and kooky influences." Others blamed Good Chum Andy Warhol for the campier aspects of Yves's latest line. WWD nevertheless sought an interview with its victim. Fat chance. "You haven't tried to understand Yves," a St. Laurent spokesman pouted, turning down the request. "You are trying to destroy Yves . . . you've broken the windows."

St. Laurent's styles, in fact, brought back uncomfortable memories of the darkest fashion days of the '40s. Broad-shouldered jackets, high-heeled wedgies, chunky chubby coats and short skirts added up to a look variously characterized as raucous, trampy or harlotish. As his models clunked past the wide-eyed buyers, there were audible gasps.

St. Laurent could take some solace from the fact that few of his fellow couturiers fared well either. "I'm not going to waste my time and money in Paris on haute couture any more," a New York buyer said. Did this year's showing mark the demise of Paris as a center of high fashion? New York's Jacques Tiffeau put it this way: "I feel that Paris has been finished for about three years. There is no longer a leader. It is out of fashion to be fashionable."

The Paris sachems themselves, busy with other lucrative pursuits, merely shrugged off the criticism. Courreges has dropped couture and is concentrating on boutiques; Cardin, already into men's wear, is now designing plumbing and chocolate boxes and playing with his own theater. St. Laurent is creating men's clothes--and sheets and towels too. In fact, Yves will soon be owned frock, shirt and shoulders by Squibb Beech-Nut, Inc.--and may well be designing gum wrappers in a few years.

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