YSL Tribute Coming to an End...and a Little Poll

These past two weeks, ever since Yves Saint Laurent left this vain world for hopefully a better one (or so we have been lulling ourselves to sleep?), it has been a great pleasure writing about the fragrances of the Yves Saint Laurent brand, many of which have been firm favourites, or indeed faithful allies in everyday battles.

Even the ones that have not produced quite the same frisson of excitement in me, such as the otherwise competent spicy fougère Jazz for men (1988) or the girly-sweet Baby Doll (1999) have been additions which have caught my eye at some point for different reasons: if only because they were parts of a line that I liked.

Same goes for some rare ones, such as the unisex Eau Libre with its suave black models, a practice for which Yves was famous; or Pour Homme, his first masculine for which he himself posed in the nude questioning our acceptance of female nudity over male; or even the discontinued fruity Vice Versa.

And of course there are some other fragrances, such as the fabulous incense and spice fireworks of Nu (2001), the controversial M7 (2002) -with its alleged inclusion of agarwood/oudh for the first time in a mainstream fragrance and its provocative ads echoing Yves's nude- or the pleasant almond flower caressed by vanilla of Cinéma (2004); I opted to leave those for another time. The reason? They were created when Yves himself had already retired from his house and so his vision was not the driving force behind them. But they will soon get their share of criticism or praise on these pages.

So for now, a little visual love expressed in the elegant advertising and fashions of Yves Saint Laurent from the 1970s.
And two clips from later on: Jazz from the late 80s and Cinema from a few years ago.



And on to you, dear readers:
1.Which is your most favourite fragrance in the Yves Saint Laurent line?
2.Which is your most despised? Why?
3.And if you could suggest something for the brand for the future, what would that be?

Looking forward to hearing your responses!



For a review of YSL L'homme click here and for a commentary on Elle, click here.

Clip of Jazz uploaded by Ilovelowe and of Cinema by LightBlv on Youtube. Ad pics from the 70s: of Rive Gauche parfum(top left), Y (top right), Eau Libre (mid right) and Pour homme (mid left) from parfumdepub.