The Semiotics of High Fashion: A Review of Yves Saint Laurent’s 1998 Autumn/Winter Campaign
Yves Saint Laurent (YSL) founded his namesake Parisian fashion house in 1961, and it has continued to thrive even after his death in 2008, remaining one of the most influential fashion brands of this generation. The Algerian-born French designer’s collections were tailored and sophisticated, and created silhouettes that blurred the lines of gender, introducing the famous ‘Le Smoking’ tuxedo in 1966. As a result, the garments had an androgynous look, empowering women all over the world in items once reserved for men in a celebration of gender fluidity that was ahead of its time.
Figure 1: Sorrenti, M. (1998). Yves Saint Laurent, Autumn/Winter Collection. [Photograph].
YSL’s 1998 Autumn/Winter campaign featured the photography of Mario Sorrenti which masterfully recreated classic Western paintings. One of the most profound photographs in the campaign is the reinterpretation of Édouard Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe, also known as Luncheon on the Grass (1863). The photographs appeared in the September issues of Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, W, Interview and GQ to advertise the collection.
Figure 2: Manet, É (1863). Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe. [Painting].
Semiotics, as the study of signs, is a useful approach to take when reading meaning in Sorrenti’s photograph (Figure 1), especially as an advertisement. However, the context of the original artwork (Figure 2) cannot be ignored. Manet’s painting was arguably very much part of the Modernist movement as he moved away from the historical and mythological compositions that the canvas scale he used would have traditionally been reserved for. In a comparison to Judgement of Paris, Rolf Læssøe notes that ‘the mythological garb has been shed in keeping with Manet’s fundamental Realism’ (2005), thus rejecting the artistic conventions that came before him. [1]
His technique also interestingly differs from the classical paintings of the Renaissance era. There seems to be a lack of perspective and scale, as well as a disregard for realistic shifts in light and dark, resulting in a somewhat flat appearance. Art critic, Clement Greenberg (1960), saw this flatness as a unique feature of Modernism, defining it as self-critical; Manet utilises ‘the characteristic methods of a discipline to criticize the discipline itself’, its two-dimensionality serving as a radical commentary on the limitations of the medium. [2] In this way, Manet’s painting rejects conventions and makes an artistic statement.
Sorrenti’s photo recreation repeats this pattern of rejection by being noticeably stylistically different to the original work. The medium has changed, and with it, its approach to tone; Sorrenti’s images have a dark and moody quality about them, injecting a chic modern trendiness, characteristic of Rive Gauche fashion in Paris. He creates a somewhat gothic feel with a dominant colour palette of blue and red, while the models seem to be drained of colour with a sickly pale essence to their features. However, in the photograph that artfully recreates Manet’s Luncheon on the Grass, Kate Moss is awash with healthy colour and sitting confidently in a pin stripe suit, while her male counterparts lay idly by her side, stripped of both clothing and colour.
As part of a larger campaign, the image plays with the concept of ‘luxury’ in art and fashion, and makes the audience question the clothing line’s symbolic value through direct association with a classic artwork. The appropriation of art is not a new concept in advertising, or even in the history of YSL. Megan Hess notes how Yves Saint Laurent was ‘one of the first designers to use fine art in his work’, recalling his famous Mondrian dress collection’ (2019) inspired by Dutch artist, Piet Mondrian. [3] It is a technique that has been successful throughout history in its ability to engage an audience in certain connotations which can then be linked to the product itself.
Much like high end fashion, art has become associated with semiotic connotations of high-society and cultural prestige. Hagtvedt and Patrick refer to art as possessing intrinsic ‘connotations of exclusivity, luxury, and sophistication’ (2008) [4], while Van Nierkerk and Conradie note how ‘special status is still accorded to Western art’, and this ‘close interpolation of fine art with high culture […] has proven particularly useful in advertising discourse (Huettl and Gierl 2012)’ (2016). [5] [6]
The majority of YSL’s audience likely has a pre-existing awareness of the cultural significance. These ‘audiences can experience the pleasure of their own knowledge’ (Van Nierkerk & Conradie, 2016) when recognising fine art in advertising. By replicating what is somewhat problematically referred to as ‘high art’, and marketing to an audience that enjoys their ability to recognise classic artwork in a modern context, YSL’s collection ‘signifies fine taste and a developed aesthetic appreciation’ (ibid), strengthening its image as a luxurious brand. There is a subtle suggestion that this is not the mere commercialisation of art, it is a placing of like with like: high art and high fashion.
YSL also employs the audience’s prior knowledge of what the original artwork consists of and/or their preconceived societal ideas surrounding certain signs to add a deeper layer of meaning to its campaign. The brand successfully does this by manipulating elements of the painting, and in doing so, much like Manet, makes a larger statement about the notion of rejecting societal norms, simultaneously reinforcing the label’s long-held vision.
The brand made the decision to clothe the female subject, who was naked in Manet’s original, and have the once clothed men lay naked by her side. We are encouraged to approach the ‘various semiotic properties’ of this clothing choice from a structuralist perspective and ‘search for “deep structures” underlying the “surface features” of sign systems’ (Chandler, 2001); the suit Kate Moss dons connotes more than just function, it forces us to question the preconceptions surrounding the suit that has led to our interpretation of the image. [7] A consumer is likely to look at the photo and think it significant that the female subject is wearing the suit instead of her male companions, and thus YSL draws attention to the product.
These preconceptions form ‘part of a complex interpretive framework’ (Chandler, 2001), which creates an experience of empowerment, radical thought, and positive change. (ibid). The 1998 campaign is very successful in this approach, likely splitting its audience into two: those who see a woman wearing a suit and recognise it as a symbol of the brand’s forward-thinking attitude to female clothing, and those who see a recreation of Manet’s classic Modernist painting that has engaged in a deliberate gender reversal. Due to preconceived societal and historical associations with fine art, gender, and the role of fashion, YSL engages in a synthesis of connotations to advertise its collection: one of elegance, luxury, and high skill, as well as societal progression and female empowerment.
By Lily Roberts - Film Pathway, Commissioning Editor
[1] Læssøe, R. (2005). Édouard Manet’s “Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe” as a Veiled Allegory of Painting. Artibus et Historiae, 26(51), pp. 195-220.
[2] Greenberg, C. (1960). Modernist Painting. In: The Voice of America Forum Lectures.
[3] Hess, M. (2019). Elegance: The Beauty of French Fashion. Richmond, Australia: Hardie Grant Books.
[4] Hagtvedt, H. and Patrick V. M. (2008). Art Infusion: The Influence of Visual Art on the Perception and Evaluation of Consumer Products. Journal of Marketing Research, XLV, pp. 379-389.
[5] Van Niekerk, A. & Conradie, M. (2016). Branding through art: the commercial value of visual and linguistic signs of art. Critical Arts, 30(2), pp. 233-251.
[6] Huettl, V. and Gierl, H. (2012). Visual art in advertising: The effects of utilitarian vs. hedonic product positioning and price information. Mark Lett, 23, pp. 893-904.
[7] Chandler, D. (2001). Introduction. In: Semiotics: The Basics. Oxfordshire: Routledge, pp. 1-9.