PARIS, Feb 21 — Together is better! Behind every great designer, art director and fashion icon, there is always a man, a woman, a partner, a brother, a muse, sometimes even an entourage. Love is a universal theme found in fashion campaigns and collections, and it’s often also the source of inspiration for some of the greatest creative geniuses. And since love is not only celebrated on Valentine’s Day, here is a panorama of the most powerful couples who have influenced the history of fashion and who continue to influence what we wear today.
“The great successes in fashion have always been stories of couples,” points out Vincent Grégoire, trendspotter at Nelly Rodi, who helps us assess five of fashion’s most powerful duos. “For example, it was thought that Chanel was on her own, but her love stories have played a major role in structuring and forging her work. Rare are the artistic directors who get ahead all by themselves, they always have at least one person with them, no matter the link, to nurture them, who they draw energy from, which allows them to create. It’s very stimulating.”
Brother and sister like Gianni and Donatella Versace, husband and wife like Isabel Marant and Jérôme Dreyfuss, lifelong partners like Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, designer and muse like Karl Lagerfeld and Inès de la Fressange, or Jean Paul Gaultier and Madonna, among others, couples are the norm in fashion, and have been for decades. But some have become legends due to their powerful aura that would likely never have emerged for one member of the pair alone....
Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé
On one side, the young fashion prodigy who replaced Christian Dior when he was just 21 years old at the Dior label. On the other side, a businessman and patron with a passion for art, music and literature. Together, they would build the Yves Saint Laurent empire and in so doing shape the image of one of the world’s most famous couturiers. While the love story between the two men, which started with love at first sight — professionally, intellectually, and physically — has often been viewed as chaotic, there is no doubt that each would not have succeeded to the same level without the other as they did, transforming Yves Saint Laurent’s gift for design and creation into gold.
“Saint Laurent and Bergé, to this day, represent an incredible couple, magical, magnified. It doesn’t matter what you say about them, because if you scratch the surface, you’ll see that not everything was rosy, but it contributed to making this couple legendary, and fascinating. They carried each other, because Yves Saint Laurent was not a businessperson, nor great a communication and he probably would not have had the same career without Bergé, but in parallel, Bergé had a real gem to work with and he was able to elevate this talent,” Vincent Gregoire analyses.
Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana
A couple that is both legendary and discreet, the pair separated many years ago without a loss of complicity or inspiration. At the head of the Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana, the duo met in the 1980s and would never really leave each other after that — at least from a point of view of creativity and friendship. Because while the couple went separate ways romantically in the early 2000s, they remain at the head of D&G together and lead it with a master touch, facing each controversy and weathering each storm with one voice, without ever faltering.
“What is quite fascinating is that this is a couple of men in a very traditional society, with the norms of Italy, which emphasises ultra traditional values, particularly in terms of family. They have been able to generate a lot of change in the fashion world.... They managed to transform their love into a relationship of complicity. They have a very strong respect for each other, and this is also the key to their success. It’s fascinating and intriguing, this loyalty. If one or the other lets go, it all falls apart, but in every instance there is something in their relationship that is more powerful than that.”
Victoria and David Beckham
With both starting their careers in ultra-popular, mainstream areas, the Beckhams quickly rose to the rank of an A-list couple, slowly but surely becoming true fashion icons — and there was work to be done in the process. Victoria transformed from a girl band singer into a renowned designer, while David went from an international soccer star to businessman and sex symbol. The two of them have built the perfect family, but also a genuine empire, a sort of golden cocoon, which today seems unshakeable.
“They are a bit like two little chicks that have fallen out of the nest and have huddled together to keep warm. They learned together. They weren’t perfect from the start, but there was a lot of potential. They grew up with the beginnings of reality TV, the beginnings of social networks, with all this culture of human identity, of spectacle and show. This helped them build an image. Today, it’s Beckham Palace, it’s the new king and queen, even if, at the moment, they are a little less in the headlines. They got married young, built themselves up, and became true fashion icons together.”
Jay-Z and Beyoncé
Both coming from the music scene, Jay-Z and Beyoncé were already global superstars when they met. While they didn’t necessarily need each other to rise to the top, becoming a couple has made them even bigger stars, to the point of building an empire that is probably one of the most powerful in the music industry, but also in fashion, and in luxury more generally. It is as a duo, and one that is perfectly matched, that they walk red carpets, attend the most prestigious ceremonies, and even feature in the biggest campaigns, like the latest from Tiffany & Co. Themed around love, of course, always and forever.
“They are the new Kennedys of diversity. What’s fascinating is that each one has their own personality, and the two together form something explosive, atomic even. And the Tiffany & Co. ad is kind of a reflection of their story, because it’s the American dream, they’re showing that anybody can do it. They started from nothing, and they succeeded. And their impact in luxury is very powerful. All this imagery that they are building around them is very high fashion, high jewellery, high-end hair, high-end tailoring. With Jay-Z and Beyoncé, everything is substantial. Rigor, hard work and excellence are all present.
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West
Despite often being mocked, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West remain an iconic couple, seemingly turning everything they touch into gold — and more followers. Despite their separation, it is still difficult to dissociate them, as the couple has become in just a few years one of the most powerful in show business, dominating highly selective and still-elitist industries such as music, fashion, and beauty. It remains to be seen if they will manage to stay on top without each other.
“So in this case, it’s more about experimentation. But there is a drive and they have real visions, real flashes of inspiration. They have also shaped each other, and there is a kind of ‘I love you/I hate you’ relationship that is very ambivalent because they need each other. She knows very well how the media works, especially social networks, influencers, and he masters the realm of the spectacle. So together they excel and are very powerful, but they can also exist without each other,” explains Vincent Gregoire. — ETX Studio
This interview has been translated from French.
