It has been confirmed in Paris that Tom Ford, the design director of Gucci, is taking over as the new women's ready-to-wear designer of France's most auspicious fashion house, Yves Saint Laurent.
The departure of Alber Elbaz, who presented his third, and much-acclaimed, collection for the house on Monday, was also announced. Future collections from spring 2001 are to be designed by Ford.
Ford had no involvement in Alber's final collection, although he took over as creative director for the label in January, following Gucci's acquisition of Yves Saint Laurent at the end of last year.
Yves Saint Laurent will continue to design the haute couture and, despite rumours to the contrary, Hedi Slimane, whose collections have also received critical acclaim, will continue as menswear designer.
There had been rumours of attempts to dissuade Elbaz from going ahead with the autumn 2000 collection, but he insisted on continuing, which he was legally entitled to do under the terms of his contract. It is presumed that he wanted to redeem himself after his shaky start at the label, where his first two collections received a mediocre response.
If so, he succeeded, bowing out in a blaze of glory. His supersleek, cleaned-up tailoring gave Saint Laurent customers a modern, upbeat vision of femininity which will be a winner in the stores. It was remarkable that he was able to negotiate his departure and design such a great farewell collection at the same time.
Elbaz took his final bow to the sounds of Elvis laughing through renditions of the lyrics "Are you sorry we drifted apart?"