Yves Saint Laurent, spring 2010

As the Yves Saint Laurent program notes put it, "a natural and honest chic, an aesthetic paradigm of new minimalism" Some of it appeared to stem from the Saint Laurent archive, albeit at a great remove: the strawberries, flounces, and peasant influences can be traced back to the seventies, though Pilati's bunchy off-the-shoulder dresses were abstracted from the source and eroticized with black leather short shorts and fishnet stockings. But there wasn't enough of it to get into any sort of stride, and when a single white sleeveless coat-dress appeared with what seemed to be purple djellaba embroidery on the shoulder, it was an idea that was left hanging, .On the other hand, there were more easily understood city dresses and suitings like a regular periwinkle long-sleeved linen dress and the belted white pantsuit that opened the show—interspersed with a continuation of the edgy black leather pieces Pilati showed last winter. surplicelike sleeves, priestly white blouses, and almost ceremonial minimized capes. is how style put it and i couldnt agree more.