Into the Wild

By Kate Betts Monday, Nov. 22, 2004

Back in the late 1960s, when Yves Saint Laurent was shaking up the stuffy Parisian couture world with his radical street-inspired looks (think motorcycle jackets, pea coats and beatnik sweaters), the idea of wearing a safari shirt laced up the front yet open to the navel was considered completely cutting-edge.

Today, the look, famously captured on film in 1968 for Vogue magazine with the cult model Veruschka posing, above, in the middle of the African savanna, is back in fashion, thanks in part to newly appointed Yves Saint Laurent creative director Stefano Pilati.

With his first collection for the fabled French couture house, Pilati did an about-face from his former boss Tom Ford and scrounged through Saint Laurent's archives, bringing back all the iconic pieces that Saint Laurent himself made famous, including the safari shirt, now in supple ultrasuede. Pilati even created a "must-have" handbag and named it after the model from 1968: the Veruschka.

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"I wanted to get the feeling of Saint Laurent back into fashion�French, elegant, classy," Pilati has said. He's not alone. On other runways in Paris and Milan last month, designers were equally inspired by the slightly bohemian '60s look that Saint Laurent made famous. Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana took their design cues from a recent trip to Botswana, filling their latest collection with python-trimmed safari looks. And for Italian sportswear giant MaxMara, the cornerstone of the show was a crisp khaki safari jacket shown over a pencil skirt.

Pilati and others are banking on the safari look to be a commercial success. "It certainly used to sell when Saint Laurent did it," says Kal Ruttenstein, senior vice president for fashion direction at Bloomingdale's. "And something has to come after jeans for casual wear. Safari jackets, if they're not too stiff, can look very modern."

Only one question remains: Will the miniskirt, the tattered hat and the hip-slung belt that Veruschka made famous return too?