Loulou de la Falaise
Encyclopedia
Loulou de La Falaise
Loulou de La Falaise (lu.lu də la fa.lɛz; (4 May 1948, England
– 5 November 2011, Boury-en-Vexin
, France
) was a fashion muse
and designer of fashion, accessories, and jewelry associated with Yves Saint-Laurent. Author Judith Thurman, writing in The New Yorker
magazine, called La Falaise "the quintessential Rive Gauche haute bohémienne".
Daughter of an Anglo-Irish fashion model and a French marquis, La Falaise was a close friend and creative partner of Yves Saint Laurent
(YSL). According to The Independent
, she helped inspire his 1966 women's tuxedo
Le Smoking and his see-through blouses.
After more than three decades designing jewelry and accessories for Saint Laurent, La Falaise launched her own fashion business, designing ready-to-wear, costume-jewelry, and accessories, which were retailed in the U.S. as well as two Loulou de La Falaise shops in Paris.
The family's actual surname is Le Bailly, though members have used Le Bailly de La Falaise, referring to an ancestral estate, since the mid 19th century; it is typically abbreviated to de La Falaise.
The title held by the head of the family, Marquis de La Coudraye, a Polish creation dating to 1707, was granted, by an 1876 act of succession, to the younger son of Pacôme-François Le Bailly, Seigneur de La Falaise, and his wife, Pauline-Louise-Victoire de Loynes, daughter of Denis, Marquis de La Coudraye. The family's younger sons typically call themselves Count de La Falaise.
, an Anglo-Irish fashion model, whom photographer Cecil Beaton
once told, "You are the only English woman I know who manages to be really chic in really hideous clothes".
Three of her christening names honored relations: Louise (her father's elder sister, who died as a teenager); Vava (one of the names of her maternal grandmother, Lady Birley); and Henriette (the name of her paternal grandmother, Henriette Hennessy, Comtesse Alain Hocquart de Turtot). La Falaise was allegedly baptised not with holy water but with Shocking, the scent by fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli
, her mother's employer.
La Falaise's maternal grandfather was portrait painter Sir Oswald Birley
, and an uncle was Mark Birley
(1930–2007), restaurateur and founder of the London nightclub, "Annabel's". Another uncle, her father's elder brother, was Henri de La Falaise
, Marquis de La Coudraye (1898–1972), film director and third husband of American actress Gloria Swanson
. Her paternal grandfather was a three-time French Olympic gold medallist in fencing
, Louis Gabriel, Count de La Falaise (1866–1910).
Loulou de La Falaise had one sibling, Alexis Richard Dion Oswald Le Bailly de La Falaise, Marquis de La Coudraye (died 2004), a furniture designer, who appeared in the Andy Warhol
film Tub Girls. Upon their parents' divorce in 1950—following Maxime de La Falaise's infidelities and a French court's declaration of her as an unfit mother—Loulou and her brother went to live with foster families until she was seven. After that, La Falaise was enrolled in English boarding schools, and "her school holidays were shared between mother, father, and the second foster family". She attended a boarding school in Switzerland as well as the Lycée Français de New York
, though was expelled from each due to her rebellious nature.
Her niece, Lucie de La Falaise (born 12 October 1970), a model and actress, is the wife of Marlon Richards, son of Keith Richards
and Anita Pallenberg
. Her nephew, Daniel, was also a model, notably appearing in Madonna
's book Sex; briefly an actor, he is now a professional chef.
in the late 1960s, where she briefly modeled for American Vogue before turning to designing printed fabrics for Halston
. Late in the decade she worked as a junior editor at the British society magazine Queen
, during which time she met Saint Laurent. Eventually, she moved to Paris, where she joined his haute-couture firm in 1972. Responding to a description of her as a Saint Laurent muse in 2010, La Falaise responded, “For me, a muse is someone who looks glamorous but is quite passive, whereas I was very hard-working. I worked from 9am to sometimes 9pm, or even 2am. I certainly wasn't passive.”
"Her official task was to bring her eccentric style to accessories and jewellery, and she duly came up with often-chunky designs incorporating large colourful stones, enamel work or rock crystal". La Falaise also inspired Saint Laurent with her inventive wardrobe: "one week she was Desdemona in purple velvet flares and a crown of flowers, the next Marlene [Dietrich] with plucked crescent-shaped eyebrows". In 2002, when Saint Laurent retired, La Falaise began producing her own clothing and jewelry designs. As reported in The New York Times by fashion writer Cathy Horyn, "The clothing line captured much of her rare taste—well-cut blazers in the best English tweeds, French sailor pants in linen, striped silk blouses with cheeky black lace edging, masculine walking coats with fur linings, and gorgeous knits in perfectly chosen colors".
She also designed cloisonné boxes and porcelain vases for Asiatides, as well as jewelry for the boutique of the Majorelle Gardens in Marrakech
, Morocco.
She sold simplified versions of her jewelry designs in a line created for the Home Shopping Network
and created costume jewelry for Oscar de la Renta
. She operated two of her own shops in Paris, one of which was designed by her brother, Alexis.
stated, "According to sources, de la Falaise was diagnosed with cancer last June, but implored intimates to keep her health a private matter.
Loulou de La Falaise (lu.lu də la fa.lɛz; (4 May 1948, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
– 5 November 2011, Boury-en-Vexin
Boury-en-Vexin
Boury-en-Vexin is a small village in northern France. It is designated municipally as a commune within the département of Oise.-References:*...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
) was a fashion muse
Muse
The Muses in Greek mythology, poetry, and literature, are the goddesses who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge, related orally for centuries in the ancient culture, that was contained in poetic lyrics and myths...
and designer of fashion, accessories, and jewelry associated with Yves Saint-Laurent. Author Judith Thurman, writing in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
magazine, called La Falaise "the quintessential Rive Gauche haute bohémienne".
Daughter of an Anglo-Irish fashion model and a French marquis, La Falaise was a close friend and creative partner of Yves Saint Laurent
Yves Saint Laurent
Yves Saint Laurent may refer to:* Yves Saint Laurent , French fashion designer* Yves Saint Laurent , a luxury fashion house founded by Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Bergé...
(YSL). According to The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, she helped inspire his 1966 women's tuxedo
Tuxedo
A tuxedo is a type of semi-formal dress for men.Tuxedo may also refer to:-Places:Canada* Tuxedo, Winnipeg, Manitoba, a city neighborhood** Tuxedo , a provincial electoral district in Manitoba...
Le Smoking and his see-through blouses.
After more than three decades designing jewelry and accessories for Saint Laurent, La Falaise launched her own fashion business, designing ready-to-wear, costume-jewelry, and accessories, which were retailed in the U.S. as well as two Loulou de La Falaise shops in Paris.
The family's actual surname is Le Bailly, though members have used Le Bailly de La Falaise, referring to an ancestral estate, since the mid 19th century; it is typically abbreviated to de La Falaise.
The title held by the head of the family, Marquis de La Coudraye, a Polish creation dating to 1707, was granted, by an 1876 act of succession, to the younger son of Pacôme-François Le Bailly, Seigneur de La Falaise, and his wife, Pauline-Louise-Victoire de Loynes, daughter of Denis, Marquis de La Coudraye. The family's younger sons typically call themselves Count de La Falaise.
Family
Christened Louise Vava Lucia Henriette Le Bailly de La Falaise and born in England, she was the eldest child and only daughter of Alain, Count de La Falaise (later Marquis de La Coudraye, 1905–1977), a French writer, translator, and publisher, and his second wife, the former Maxime BirleyMaxime de la Falaise
Maxime de la Falaise was a 1950s model, and, in the 1960s, an underground movie actress. She is also remembered as a cookery writer and "food maven" and a fashion designer for Chloé and Gérard Pipart...
, an Anglo-Irish fashion model, whom photographer Cecil Beaton
Cecil Beaton
Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, CBE was an English fashion and portrait photographer, diarist, painter, interior designer and an Academy Award-winning stage and costume designer for films and the theatre...
once told, "You are the only English woman I know who manages to be really chic in really hideous clothes".
Three of her christening names honored relations: Louise (her father's elder sister, who died as a teenager); Vava (one of the names of her maternal grandmother, Lady Birley); and Henriette (the name of her paternal grandmother, Henriette Hennessy, Comtesse Alain Hocquart de Turtot). La Falaise was allegedly baptised not with holy water but with Shocking, the scent by fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli
Elsa Schiaparelli
Elsa Schiaparelli was an Italian fashion designer. Along with Coco Chanel, her greatest rival, she is regarded as one of the most prominent figures in fashion between the two World Wars. Starting with knitwear, Schiaparelli's designs were heavily influenced by Surrealists like her collaborators...
, her mother's employer.
La Falaise's maternal grandfather was portrait painter Sir Oswald Birley
Oswald Birley
Sir Oswald Hornby Joseph Birley, MC, RA was an English portrait painter in the early part of the 20th century.-Biography:...
, and an uncle was Mark Birley
Mark Birley
Marcus Lecky Oswald Hornby Birley , known as Mark Birley, was a British entrepreneur known for his investments in the hospitality industry...
(1930–2007), restaurateur and founder of the London nightclub, "Annabel's". Another uncle, her father's elder brother, was Henri de La Falaise
Henri de la Falaise
Henry de La Falaise, Marquis de La Coudraye, born James Henry Le Bailly de La Falaise , was a French nobleman, translator, film director, film producer, sometimes actor and war hero who was best known for his high-profile marriages to two leading Hollywood actresses.His actual surname was Le...
, Marquis de La Coudraye (1898–1972), film director and third husband of American actress Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson was an American actress, singer and producer. She was one of the most prominent stars during the silent film era as both an actress and a fashion icon, especially under the direction of Cecil B. DeMille, made dozens of silents and was nominated for the first Academy Award in the...
. Her paternal grandfather was a three-time French Olympic gold medallist in fencing
Fencing
Fencing, which is also known as modern fencing to distinguish it from historical fencing, is a family of combat sports using bladed weapons.Fencing is one of four sports which have been featured at every one of the modern Olympic Games...
, Louis Gabriel, Count de La Falaise (1866–1910).
Loulou de La Falaise had one sibling, Alexis Richard Dion Oswald Le Bailly de La Falaise, Marquis de La Coudraye (died 2004), a furniture designer, who appeared in the Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
film Tub Girls. Upon their parents' divorce in 1950—following Maxime de La Falaise's infidelities and a French court's declaration of her as an unfit mother—Loulou and her brother went to live with foster families until she was seven. After that, La Falaise was enrolled in English boarding schools, and "her school holidays were shared between mother, father, and the second foster family". She attended a boarding school in Switzerland as well as the Lycée Français de New York
Lycée Français de New York
The Lycée Français de New York , literally The French High School of New York, is an exclusive French-medium school for K-12 students based in Manhattan, New York which follows the French curriculum of study and allows students to study for the French general Baccalauréat, the international option...
, though was expelled from each due to her rebellious nature.
Her niece, Lucie de La Falaise (born 12 October 1970), a model and actress, is the wife of Marlon Richards, son of Keith Richards
Keith Richards
Keith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine said Richards had created "rock's greatest single body of riffs", and placed him as the "10th greatest guitarist of all time." Fourteen songs written by Richards and songwriting...
and Anita Pallenberg
Anita Pallenberg
Anita Pallenberg is an Italian-born actress, model, and fashion designer. She was the romantic partner of Rolling Stones multi-instrumentalist and guitarist Brian Jones and later the partner of the guitarist of the same band Keith Richards, from 1967 to 1979, by whom she has two surviving...
. Her nephew, Daniel, was also a model, notably appearing in Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
's book Sex; briefly an actor, he is now a professional chef.
Career
La Falaise moved to New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in the late 1960s, where she briefly modeled for American Vogue before turning to designing printed fabrics for Halston
Halston
Roy Halston Frowick, also known as Halston was a clothing designer of the 1970s. His long dresses or copies of his style were popular fashion wear in mid-1970s discotheques.-Early life and career:...
. Late in the decade she worked as a junior editor at the British society magazine Queen
Queen (magazine)
Queen magazine was a British society publication established by Samuel Beeton in 1861. In 1958, the magazine was sold to Jocelyn Stevens, who dropped the prefix "The" and used it as his vehicle to represent the younger side of the British Establishment, sometimes referred to as the "Chelsea Set"...
, during which time she met Saint Laurent. Eventually, she moved to Paris, where she joined his haute-couture firm in 1972. Responding to a description of her as a Saint Laurent muse in 2010, La Falaise responded, “For me, a muse is someone who looks glamorous but is quite passive, whereas I was very hard-working. I worked from 9am to sometimes 9pm, or even 2am. I certainly wasn't passive.”
"Her official task was to bring her eccentric style to accessories and jewellery, and she duly came up with often-chunky designs incorporating large colourful stones, enamel work or rock crystal". La Falaise also inspired Saint Laurent with her inventive wardrobe: "one week she was Desdemona in purple velvet flares and a crown of flowers, the next Marlene [Dietrich] with plucked crescent-shaped eyebrows". In 2002, when Saint Laurent retired, La Falaise began producing her own clothing and jewelry designs. As reported in The New York Times by fashion writer Cathy Horyn, "The clothing line captured much of her rare taste—well-cut blazers in the best English tweeds, French sailor pants in linen, striped silk blouses with cheeky black lace edging, masculine walking coats with fur linings, and gorgeous knits in perfectly chosen colors".
She also designed cloisonné boxes and porcelain vases for Asiatides, as well as jewelry for the boutique of the Majorelle Gardens in Marrakech
Marrakech
Marrakech or Marrakesh , known as the "Ochre city", is the most important former imperial city in Morocco's history...
, Morocco.
She sold simplified versions of her jewelry designs in a line created for the Home Shopping Network
Home Shopping Network
Home Shopping Network or HSN began in 1977 as a 24-hour/7 day a week home shopping television network televised via cable, satellite, and some terrestrial channels in the Philippines. HSN can also be shopped online at hsn.com...
and created costume jewelry for Oscar de la Renta
Oscar de la Renta
Oscar de la Renta is one of the world's leading fashion designers. He was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1973.-Career:...
. She operated two of her own shops in Paris, one of which was designed by her brother, Alexis.
Marriages
Loulou de La Falaise was married twice:- Desmond FitzGeraldDesmond FitzGerald, 29th Knight of GlinDesmond John Villiers FitzGerald, 29th Knight of Glin , was an Irish hereditary knight and president of the Irish Georgian Society.-Career:...
, 29th Knight of GlinKnight of GlinThe Knight of Glin, also called the Black Knight, was a hereditary title in the Fitzgeralds of Limerick, Ireland since the early 14th century. The family was a branch of the FitzGerald dynasty or Geraldines, related to the Earls of Desmond , who were granted extensive lands in County Limerick by...
, an Irish nobleman, who died on 14 September 2011. They married on 6 October 1966, separated the following year, and divorced in 1970. Her title upon marrying the knight was Madam FitzGerald. - Thadée Klossowski de Rola, a French writer, who is the younger son of the painter BalthusBalthusBalthasar Klossowski de Rola , best known as Balthus, was an esteemed but controversial Polish-French modern artist....
. They married in Paris, France, on 11 June 1977; the bride wore a harem-and-turban ensemble from Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche. They had one child, a daughter, Anna.
Death
La Falaise died at her residence in Boury-en-Vexin, France, on 5 November 2011. The cause of death was not specified, other than as the result of a "long illness". An obituary published in Women's Wear DailyWomen's Wear Daily
Women's Wear Daily is a fashion-industry trade journal sometimes called "the bible of fashion." WWD delivers information and intelligence on changing trends and breaking news in the fashion, beauty and retail industries with a readership composed largely of retailers, designers, manufacturers,...
stated, "According to sources, de la Falaise was diagnosed with cancer last June, but implored intimates to keep her health a private matter.