“Le poison de la mode tue”. The poison of fashion kills.
A hauntingly appropriate subtitle to Monsieur Yves Saint Laurent’s stunning gothic drawing featured in Riccardo Tisci’s A#8. Entitled “Les Chants de Maldoror”, the image is one of the designer’s original sketches for French choreographer Roland Petit’s 1962 ballet of the same name for which he designed the costumes. “Les Chants de Maldoror” was based on the poetic novel of the same name, written by the Comte de Lautréamont (AKA Isidore Lucien Ducasse) at the end of the 19th century . It is a macabre tale in sixty verses concerning the evil character Maldoror and his nihilistic existence, with little narrative sensibility and a metafictional style that warns the reader of the dangers of entering the world within the text. The first stanza, entitled “The Reader Forewarned” is the best example of this. Read an excerpt below:

God grant that the reader, emboldened and having become at present as fierce as what he is reading, find, without loss of bearings, his way, his wild and treacherous passage through the desolate swamps of these sombre, poison-soaked pages; for, unless he should bring to his reading a rigorous logic and a sustained mental effort at least as strong as his distrust, the lethal fumes of this book shall dissolve his soul as water does sugar.
It is not right that everyone read the pages that follow: a sole few will savour this bitter fruit without danger. As a result, wavering soul, before penetrating further into such uncharted barrens, draw back, step no deeper. Mark my words: draw back, step no deeper, like the eyes of a son respectfully flinching away from his mother’s august contemplation, or rather, like an acute angle formation of cold-sensitive cranes stretching beyond the eye can reach, soaring through the winter silence in deep meditation, under tight sail towards a focal point on the horizon, from where there suddenly rises a peculiar gust of wind, omen of a storm.

Featured in Riccardo’s magazine, this poignant reference is echoed with a reflected warning within the subtitle. The poison of fashion kills. Released only months after Yves Saint Laurent’s death, this dedication seems a dark tribute to the passed designer and a recognition of his dedication to the arts and a wider cultural sphere. With it, Riccardo paints a grim picture of his calling – attributing a dangerous yet undefined psychological quality to fashion.

Above image: “Les Chants de Maldoror”, 1962 by Yves Saint Laurent. Courtesy of the Fondation Pierre Bergé Yves Saint Laurent.

Above: further sketches by Yves Saint Laurent for Roland Petit’s 1962 ballet “Les Chants de Maldoror”.

Above: “Les Chants de Maldoror” illustration by François Auberon.