• Intelligencer
  • The Cut
  • Vulture
  • The Strategist
  • Curbed
  • Grub Street
  • Subscribe to the Magazine Give a Gift Subscription Buy Back Issues Current Issue Contents
    Subscribe to New York Magazine
  • Subscribe
  • Profile
    Sign Out
The Cut
  • Style
  • Self
  • Culture
  • Power
Style
  • Fashion
  • Beauty
  • Parties & Red Carpet
  • Fashion Shows
  • Cathy Horyn
  • The Cut Shop
Self
  • Health & Wellness
  • The State of the Uterus
  • Parenting
  • Advice
  • Sex & Relationships
  • Horoscopes
Culture
  • Books
  • Television
  • Movies
  • Music
  • Celebrity
Power
  • Politics
  • Work
  • Money
  • Rebecca Traister
More
  • Latest Stories
  • Video
  • About Us
  • nymag.com
  • New York Magazine
  • Intelligencer
  • Vulture
  • The Cut
  • The Strategist
  • Grub Street
  • Curbed
legends
October 19, 2014

See Glorious Backstage Photos From Yves Saint Laurent’s Heyday

By Erica Schwiegershausen

Share

  • Share
  • Tweet
Photo: Roxanne Lowit

When the photographer Roxanne Lowit first started sneaking backstage at fashion shows in the late ‘70s, it wasn’t so much an artistic choice as a matter of convenience. “I didn’t have the credentials to be up front,” she explains now — adding that it also didn’t help that she was a woman. “I came onto the scene, and they said, ‘You don’t look like a photographer, you can’t go in there’ — because the photographers were these big men carrying huge cameras and lenses and so on,” she told the Cut last week over tea at her Manhattan apartment. “I always met this closed door, and instead of trying to break through the door, I went around the back.”

It didn’t take Lowit long to realize that backstage was where all the action was, and before long, SoHo Weekly News editor Annie Flanders noticed her work and sent her to Paris to cover all the biggest shows. She attended her first Yves Saint Laurent show in 1978, and continued photographing the designer until his last runway show in 2002. Next month, a new book, Yves Saint Laurent, celebrates Lowit’s photography from the height of Saint Laurent’s career, including backstage shots of Jerry Hall, Linda Evangelista, Shalom Harlow, and much, much more.

The Cut spoke with Lowit about her memories of Saint Laurent, what it was like to be a female fashion photographer in the ‘80s, and how the industry has changed since she first started out.

Though you initially photographed backstage out of convenience, you stuck with it your whole career. What about being backstage appealed to you?
Yeah, I kind of pioneered backstage photography. Once I went backstage, I realized how wonderful it was, because you could see the girl fixing her clothes, and the designer fixing the girls, and then putting on the makeup, combing their hair, and just all of it. You know, there would be two girls standing together, wearing similar things, and I’d just ask them to turn, to smile. You can get up close and spend time with them, and shoot the front and the back and the full length. It was much smaller then, and much more personal. And much more fun — everyone was having a good time and people weren’t really nervous. It was fun to put on a show. It was different. There was just so much more going on in the back. I never wanted to go to the front.

You’ve said that you looked very different from the other photographers at the time. Was that an advantage?
No. It was never an advantage to be a woman and it was never an advantage not to look like a photographer. Because then people didn’t allow you entry when you wanted to go, you always had to explain yourself. All the photographers were male. To this day, I think I’m the only female photographer that does reportage in Paris. 

How would you get backstage?
Any way I could. At first, Billie Blair — she was a model — would say I was her hairdresser. She had hair like, an inch long. I was like, Couldn’t you say makeup artist or something? But then, as I would be around, I began to know the girls. So I knew Pat Cleveland, and she would take me in if she saw me outside. Things were different back then. There weren’t that many guards. There wasn’t the entourage that there is now of celebrities. It was much more toned down, much more personal.

What was it like to be backstage at Yves Saint Laurent?
Backstage they were working — they would be quiet and very efficient. There were a lot of discussions between Saint Laurent and Loulou [de la Falaise], but most people wouldn’t break his aura. People were in awe of him, and sort of shy to be next to him. Everybody called him Mr. Saint Laurent. I called him Yves.

He would dress every girl and he would fix them, and he would tie the bows and fix the belts, and so on. He was very hands-on about it. He watched every girl go out, so he would stand there and just primp and fix and tie and so on. He was special. He knew what you wanted. He was very insightful. He was very happy being backstage, especially in the earlier years.

Did you feel nervous around him?
No. Never. I think we liked each other when we first met each other. And that continued until the end. I was chosen to be his personal photographer for his show at the Met [in 1983], so that was quite an honor. His work was always incredible. He was always ahead of the curve, and he was an amazing designer. He did everything first. He did the pointy bra first. He did the see-through transparencies first. He did tuxedos for women first. He did pants first. He did ready-to-wear first. He did short skirts … just about everything.

How has the fashion industry changed since you first started photographing?
The times have changed, the girls have changed, the clothes have changed, the backstage rules have changed. It’s more business. It’s not about creating, it’s not about the love — I mean, I have pictures of Jerry Hall [and others] dancing, and I didn’t ask them to dance, they were dancing because they were having so much fun, the music was so good, the whole energy backstage was so good. It was another time, when they had that kind of fun. It was magic — you were there watching this whole glorious creation take place. Your feet didn’t touch the ground. If you loved fashion, you were in heaven.

Now, backstage, they’re always hurrying the models, rushing them. It’s all about business. There’s the PR, and the PR assistants, and the assistant’s assistants. They have ropes and dividers and favorites. It’s just not the same flow, the same energy.

Would the models act differently depending on what they were wearing?
Definitely. They would try clothes on and look in the mirror and become like chameleons. The one who did it the most was Pat Cleveland. I remember watching her [pretend to] die at the end of Thierry Mugler, where she took some poison out of her ring — she was wearing like a burgundy-red velvet gown — and then she died to some opera. That’s the dramatics — that’s the extreme that it went to. When they went out it was their personality that was wearing the clothes, it wasn’t the clothes wearing them.

What was your lifestyle like during the years you photographed YSL?
I would work day and night. I worked for Vogue a lot, so I went to a lot of parties and fashion shows. To this day, I still shoot parties and fashion shows when I have the chance, because I love doing it. I love going out late at night, and I wear black, and then also I’m not seen. I prefer to be not seen, and to be able to just create and imagine and take pictures. I love fashion, although nowadays it’s hard to find what excites me. When I do, I’m really thrilled.

What does excite you?
New, interesting, creative — in any shape or form. Last season, I thought Olivier Saillard’s “Models Never Talk” was brilliant. It was something that I’d never seen before. But when you see things that are rehashed, and you know lots of money was spent, you’re like, Why? There’s no reason for it. I much prefer the new things, or the innovative things, or the magical things. That’s why I like going out at night, because the kids are amazing with what they do.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Lowit’s work will be on view at the Steven Kasher Gallery from October 29 to November 4.

Related

A Rare Glimpse Inside Paris’s Exclusive 1980s Club Scene
View
1 / 13 Photos
Jerry Hall, Paris, 1995  Photo: ��Roxanne Lowit. Courtesy of Roxanne Lowit.
Catherine Deneuve, 1988  Photo: ��Roxanne Lowit. Courtesy of Roxanne Lowit.
Linda Evangelista, Paris, October 1986  Photo: ��Roxanne Lowit. Courtesy of Roxanne Lowit.
Shalom Harlow, Spring 1993 Haute Couture  Photo: ��Roxanne Lowit. Courtesy of Roxanne Lowit.
Fall 1984 RTW  Photo: ��Roxanne Lowit. Courtesy of Roxanne Lowit.
Spring 1983 RTW  Photo: ��Roxanne Lowit. Courtesy of Roxanne Lowit.
Saint Laurent in New York, 1983  Photo: ��Roxanne Lowit. Courtesy of Roxanne Lowit.
Spring 1993 Haute Couture  Photo: ��Roxanne Lowit. Courtesy of Roxanne Lowit.
Spring 1981 RTW  Photo: ��Roxanne Lowit. Courtesy of Roxanne Lowit.
Saint Laurent with Alva Chinn at the Opium Party, 1978  Photo: ��Roxanne Lowit. Courtesy of Roxanne Lowit.
Fall 1985 Haute Couture  Photo: ��Roxanne Lowit. Courtesy of Roxanne Lowit.
Fall 1984 RTW  Photo: ��Roxanne Lowit. Courtesy of Roxanne Lowit.
Katoucha Niane, Fall 2000 Haute Couture  Photo: ��Roxanne Lowit. Courtesy of Roxanne Lowit.
1 / 13

Tags:

  • inteview
  • q&a
  • roxanne lowit
  • slideshow
  • yves saint laurent
  • ysl
  • backstage
  • photos
  • jerry hall
  • linda evangelista
  • shalom harlow
  • fashion
  • nostalgia
  • legends
  • gallery
  • More

More Galleries

Jan. 10, 2023
All the Looks From the 2023 Golden Globes  Sheryl Lee Ralph, Jenna Ortega, Jessica Chastain, Julia Garner, Jeremy Allen White, Angela Bassett, and more. 
parties! Sept. 23, 2022
Katie Holmes, Chloë Sevigny, and More of the Bestest Party Pics This Week  Chanel, Mejuri, and more celebrate. 
parties! Sept. 16, 2022
Doja Cat, Lil Nas X, and More of the Bestest Party Pics This Week  Fendi, Frame, and Coach all celebrated NYFW. 
emmys 2022 Sept. 12, 2022
Emmys 2022: All the Red Carpet Looks  Updating: What Hollywood is wearing to the 2022 Primetime Emmy Awards. 
By Olivia Luppino
nyfw spring 2023 Sept. 9, 2022
Gigi Hadid, Chlöe Bailey, and More of the Bestest Party Pics of the Week  Saks Fifth Avenue, Longchamp, and more celebrate the beginning of NYFW. 
rip Sept. 9, 2022
The Queen Sure Did Love to Color-Coordinate  Monochrome for decades. 
red carpet Sept. 6, 2022
The Venice Film Festival Is a Major Fashion Event  Valentino and Gucci and Armani, oh my. 
red carpet June 5, 2022
All the Best Looks at the 2022 MTV Movie and TV Awards  Sydney Sweeney, Vanessa Hudgens, Jay Ellis, and more! 
parties! May 20, 2022
The Bestest Party Looks of the Week  Harry Styles > everyone! 
parties! May 13, 2022
The Bestest Party Looks of the Week  Bury me in Dove Cameron’s Saint Sintra skirt. 
parties! May 6, 2022
The Bestest Party Looks of the Week  Cue the Met Gala after-party FOMO. 
met gala 2022 May 2, 2022
Met Gala 2022: All the Looks [Photos]  Billie Eilish, Kim Kardashian, Michelle Yeoh, Hailey Bieber, Megan Thee Stallion, Cardi B, Blake Lively, and more. 
parties! Apr. 29, 2022
The Bestest Party Looks of the Week  This one goes to Olivia Rodrigo and her sweater vest. 
parties! Apr. 22, 2022
The Bestest Party Looks of the Week  “Fuck those Zoom tops.” 
celebrity style Apr. 18, 2022
The Best Looks From Coachella 2022  From Harry Styles’s sparkling Gucci set to Megan Thee Stallion’s metallic bodysuit. 
style Apr. 13, 2022
A Look Inside the New Museum’s Spring Gala  Featuring all the best looks. 
grammys 2022 Apr. 3, 2022
Grammy Awards 2022 Red Carpet: All the Looks  Lady Gaga, Olivia Rodrigo, Lenny Kravitz, Lil Nas X, Billie Eilish, and more. 
oscars 2022 Mar. 28, 2022
How Were The Oscars After Party Looks Better Than The Actual Award Looks?  Finally, some fun. 
oscars 2022 Mar. 27, 2022
All the Looks From the 2022 Oscars Red Carpet  Zendaya, Regina Hall, Timothée Chalamet, Andrew Garfield, Kristen Stewart, Ariana DeBose, and more. 
style Mar. 22, 2022
Bridgerton Season 2 Premiere: All the Red-Carpet Looks 
  • Style
  • Self
  • Culture
  • Power
  • About The Cut
  • About New York Magazine
  • Newsletters
  • Help
  • Contact
  • Press
  • Media Kit
  • We’re Hiring
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Ad Choices
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
  • Accessibility
The Cut is a Vox Media Network. © 2023 Vox Media, LLC. All rights reserved.