Diary
Flights of Fancy
Yves Saint Laurent’s letters to Zizi Jeanmaire, 1969
Letter from Yves Saint Laurent to Zizi Jeanmaire, 1969. Felt pen on paper. © Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent
With her extravagant outfits, elegant dance techniques and distinctive cropped hair, dancer and singer Renée Marcelle “Zizi” Jeanmaire (1924–2020) was regarded by many as the epitome of 1960s Parisian glamour. Her sense of style was so admired in her native France that the poet Louis Aragon was said to have declared, “Without her, Paris would not be Paris.”
Jeanmaire was a classically trained ballet dancer, but her signature look—both on and off the stage—broke with the traditions of conservative performance attire. She was known in particular for flamboyant, shimmering concoctions of bird feathers, rhinestones and other daring creations by Yves Saint Laurent (1936–2008). The two met in 1956, when Saint Laurent was working as an assistant for Christian Dior and took on an assignment that involved set and costume design. Saint Laurent began spending time socially with Jeanmaire and her husband, the director and choreographer Roland Petit (1924–2011), and the three bonded over an appreciation of the stage, sparking a creative friendship that would last more than fifty years.
In 1961, Saint Laurent conceived a billowing, elaborate design of pink ostrich feathers for Jeanmaire’s rendition of “Mon truc en plumes” (“My Thing with Feathers”). The song became a durable hit and one of her most recognizable musical performances—according to Petit, she sang it to audiences more than 1,460 times during her career. The following year, Saint Laurent founded his namesake label, and over the next four decades he designed hundreds of dresses and couture pieces for Jeanmaire and other celebrated figures in the worlds of theater, ballet and cinema.
Zizi Jeanmaire performing “Bing Bing Bang” at the Casino de Paris in a design by Yves Saint Laurent, February 1970. Photo: Giancarlo BOTTI/ Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
In 1966, Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergé visited Morocco for the first time. Saint Laurent had been born in Algeria and had fond memories of his childhood there. Upon returning to North Africa as an adult, he rediscovered the region’s bold colors and dramatic landscapes, which provided endless sources of inspiration for his work. Saint Laurent and Bergé were so enamored of Morocco that they immediately bought a home there and returned each year, usually in June and December, when Saint Laurent would design his collections for the upcoming season.
While in Morocco, he sent hand-drawn letters to friends and loved ones, missives often adorned with vibrant sketches of the plant and animal life surrounding him in Marrakesh. In December 1969, he sent a holiday card to Jeanmaire, Petit and their young daughter Valentine, surrounding his words with North African-inspired forms: a traditional djellaba robe, palm trees, a vividly patterned snake. At the time, Saint Laurent and Bergé still lived in their first Moroccan home, a property known as Dar el- Hanch (Arabic for “Snake’s House”), and snakes quickly became a recurring visual motif, both inside the residence and in the designer’s correspondence.
Letter from Yves Saint Laurent to Zizi Jeanmaire and Roland Petit. December 8, 1969. Felt pen on paper. © Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent
That same year, he sent an intricately drawn letter to Jeanmaire filled with tenderness and playful humor. The drawing imaginatively transforms her famous feathers into palm-tree fronds, with the caption, “Mon truc en palmes” (“My Thing with Palms”). In an accompanying note, Saint Laurent wrote:
This is what would happen to your feathers if you came to Marrakech, dear Zizi, and what a saving! No more Madame Février, the palm grove would suffice.
The facetious threat of cutting ties with Madame Février is a reference to Maison Février, the Paris feather atelier still renowned for adorning the dresses and costumes of iconic French performers. (Jeanmaire was one of Février’s top clients at the time.) At the bottom of the letter, Saint Laurent added a lighthearted postscript:
But palm feathers would make a very pretty Mademoiselle Alaska / Fondly, Yves
“Mademoiselle Alaska” was an upbeat musical number of Jeanmaire’s for which Saint Laurent designed a song-specific stage costume in 1970 on the occasion of her music-hall show “La Revue” at the Casino de Paris. It dazzled both music and fashion critics. Another dress for the song “Bing Bing Bang” was a stunning ensemble of pheasant feathers, rhinestones and sequins—and in a notable homage to Marrakesh, Saint Laurent embellished it with the unmistakable silhouette of a palm tree.—Alexandra Vargo