The Saint Laurent Muse brings to life the Paris of the 70s with the greatest names in fashion, their rivalry, nightlife, glamour and vanity.

Loulou de la Falaise comes from aristocratic family. Her childhood wasn’t nurturing. It involved divorced parents, foster families, boarding schools, and unloving grandparents. It led her into unhappy marriage at young age, followed shortly by divorce. But there was one crucial lesson which her mother, Maxime, instilled in her that it was important to create one’s existence. Her mother always looked forward, never backwards, and understood that the key to happiness was to find something you love to do. For Maxime, it was fashion collections in Paris where she also took Loulou who was mesmerized by the clothes.

Loulou’s career path takes her from assisting at in-store fashion shows in Europe to some odd fashion jobs in NYC. While visiting a friend in Paris, she is invited to a Saint Laurent couture fashion show. And that’s when everything changes for her. She gets involved in designing with Yves and also becomes his muse. The fashion world becomes her family which she never experienced as a child.

The friendship between Loulou and Yves reveals all the glamour and excesses of high society, the decadent parties and underworld nightclubs. The professional rivalry between Yves and Lagerfeld leads to division and tensions among friends, which further leads to deception.

The Saint Laurent Muse exposes how in fashion boundaries of propriety are pushed to the brim and scandals. It reveals the time when haute couture was being rivaled by new trend of lucrative world of ready-to-wear clothes. Tumultuous time is vividly exposed with all the rivalry and tensions among fashion designers and personal friendships. The narrative and richly imagined interactions are authentic.

The story involves more of overindulgences rather than fashion designing itself, not shying away from graphic descriptions. Nevertheless, the subject is portrayed by a very talented writer who chose to tackle this challenging subject.

Set in 1970's Paris, Loulou de la Falaise is a wealthy, divorcee that hits the fashion scene with Yves Saint Laurent. The story follows their couture house, the highs and lows of the fashion world and lots of drugs/partying. It was interesting reading about the fashion icons and their entourage - a lot of people I didn't know much about. It started a little slow, but then I totally got immersed in the story and it was fascinating.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for a temporary, digital ARC in return for my review.

I was lucky to receive an advanced review copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. C. W. Gortner is one of my favorite authors and I have been anxiously awaiting his new novel . The Saint Laurent Muse covers the excesses of the 1970s era in the fashion business in Paris. It will be published on March 18, 2025.

I had a difficult time becoming interested in the book. Alot of characters were introduced in the first 40 pages and I couldn't keep them straight. When Loulou began working for St. Laurent, around page 60, the characters were kept to a minimum as the focus was on the shop where the designers worked. The story then took off. However, my confusion over the plot was based upon the main character not being as famous as other women that Gortner has written about, such as Coco Chanel and Lucretia Borgia. I searched Wikipedia to determine whether Loulou de la Falaise was a real life person and she was. She was the second of three muses that Yves Saint Laurent had in his studio. Designers Karl Lagerfeld and Halston are featured prominently for their drug use at parties as well as their competition with Yves.

What was Yves Saint Laurent known for? He was the first haute couture designer to sell a ready to wear collection. He also changed his style of clothing to bohemian. Loulou was the inspiration for these designs. She wanted women to feel comfortable with their clothing. Loulou created jewelry for herself to wear at the parties that she attended. Yves liked them enough to eventually promote her to be the jewelry designer for his brand. Other firsts for him included the creation of the beatnik look, the pea coat, smock tops, and thigh high boots. Saint Laurent is often said to be the designer responsible for the acceptance of women wearing of pants. It was fun to read about the suits that Yves was famous for creating. A tuxedo for women, Le Smoking, was one such creation.

The party scene in Paris was distasteful to me. Although accurate in its description, I hated to read about all the cigarette smoking, alcohol and drug use at the nightly parties that the staff engaged in. I don't know how anyone would be able to work the next day after partying to 2 am, but they did.

All in all, The Saint Laurent Muse is a compelling read.

2.5 stars, rounded to 3.

Set in the Paris of the 1970s Loulou de la Falaise, a young woman of wealth and privilege travels to Paris on a whim having escaped a brief first marriage and a strained relationship with a mother she barely knows. Almost immediately she meets Yves Saint Laurent who is enchanted by her and she goes to work for him as an assistant (but really quite a bit more) and muse at a time when haute couture is being replaced by pret a porter.

I was disappointed this wasn’t about the fashion…this is all drugs, partying and sex and the rivalry between YSL and Karl Largerfeld. There’s some fairly scandalous stuff here, if it’s meant to be fact-ish (scandalous for the 70s, anyway. Who knows what qualifies as scandalous in the fashion world of today?) and while some of that can be fun, I was really looking for more about the clothes. Boo.

This intimate portrayal of Yves Saint Laurent goes behind closed doors to reveal the passions that drove the designer. Loulou de la Falaise, the muse in the title, is both friend and confidante. Her narration shows her devotion to the designer, but this is as much his story as hers. Fashion fans will appreciate this depiction of Saint Laurent's life, his loves, and his struggles.

This was a beautifully done historical fiction novel, it had that elmeent that I was looking for and enjoyed getting into this world. I was invested in the characters and was hooked from the world and storyline. C. W. Gortner has a strong concept for this type of book and enjoyed the element of this book.

“The Saint Laurent Muse” by C. W. Gortner is a riveting deep dive historical fiction about the life of Yves Saint Laurent and his lifelong friend and muse Loulou de la Falaise. The author tells the story with a passion that feels very personal and captures the time of the reinvention of Haute couture into the world of ready to wear fashion. The shocking lifestyle and the excesses of the time are written beautifully and the incredible descriptions of the clothes actually become a character in the book they are so real. Yves was a tormented man as were many in the competitive world of the designer fashion houses and without Lulu at his side I doubt he would have enjoyed his incredible fame. I did not know her story and I am so glad to have read more about the empire he built and her influence on his success. The book has graphic descriptions of excessive drug and alcohol abuse as well as descriptions of the sexual exploits that took place in the gay clubs of Paris, but written in a way that was part of the history and not for the shock value. I learned a lot about the world of high fashion, and it’s iconic players in a way we don’t often get to observe.

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Many thanks for the complimentary ARC kindly provided by NetGalley and the author/publisher. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This was a tough one that I picked up and put down 3 times. I’ve enjoyed C. W. Gortner’s writing in the past, and the writing isn’t the issue for me. I’m just gonna say this just wasn’t the book for me.

This book would interest anyone who grew up in the 70's or 80's and was a fan of fashion magazines. Provides behind-the-scenes stories of Saint Laurent's intense devotion to his work. The author has a wonderful sympathy for all of the very interesting characters. At times the stories get a bit wild and crazy - the 1970's in Paris! - but the author helps us to understand the characters' motivations. Very well researched and written, highly recommend.

As a lover of historical fiction, I can always count on author C.W. Gortner to offer up a skillful novel where I will learn something new, even when it's a topic of only marginal interest to me. THE SAINT LAURENT MUSE is a deep dive into the world of Haute couture during the 1970s in Paris. A period when the exclusivity associated with high fashion is shifting toward the more lucrative world of ready-to-wear. And it's hardly the world of glamour you might imagine.

Gortner's novel focuses on LouLou de la Falaise (1947-2011), a chic dresser known in fashion circles for being the muse of designer Yves Saint Laurent (1936-2008). Saint Laurent's steady partner and sometime lover was Pierre Bergé (1930-2017) who provided the business savvy behind the Saint Laurent brand.

As readers, we learn that Loulou, the daughter of an aristocratic French writer and a former model who divorce when she is just three years old, grows up in a string of foster families and boarding schools, never experiencing the love and security every child deserves. Until she finds a sense of family within the fashion world, where she ultimately gets her a chance to do her own designing.

As a longtime employee and friend, it is from Loulou's vantage point that we explore the world of Saint Laurent-Bergé fashion in Paris. It's a high-pressure world where millions of dollars are at stake and the cults of celebrity and wealth are woven throughout the industry. There are endless deadlines around unveiling collections, petty jealousies among designers, competition over who is using which trendy models, and behind-the-scenes excess in alcohol, drugs, and sexual activity. Although this novel is set in a period before the AIDS epidemic, the book includes graphic descriptions of gay clubs in Paris where anonymous sex was readily available for both participants and voyeurs.

THE SAINT LAURENT MUSE also includes the story of the love Yves Saint Laurent felt for French socialite Jacques de Bascher (1951-1989), a much younger man who was German designer Karl Lagerfeld's (1933-2019) companion from 1971 to de Bascher's death. It's quite a strange love story. One that will leave you with many more questions than answers.

I walk away from this book knowing much more about the world of fashion, though I can't say it's one I find appealing. But I recommend the book for those who like to get inside unknown worlds that reflect aspects of society we don't often get to observe.

Delve deep into the fashion world of the 70’s with Lulu and Yves St Laurent.By delving deep I mean the fashions,the drugs,the parties,the people.Absolutely fascinating book with a lot of fashion history.very stylish.
Thankyou Netgalley for this ARC

Readers who are interested in fashion history will be riveted by this look at the creative and decadent set who surrounded fashion super-star Yves St. Laurent.

The book was both fascinating and horrifying as we follow the back-biting design set and vicariously attend their parties and night’s out. Frankly, the copious drug use left me a bit shell-shocked, but I loved reading about Lulu de la Falaise and her experiences with St. Laurent. It will be up to the reader to discern if there are any “ happy ever after” stories in this novel. There are conclusions. And successes, for sure.

Netgalley provided me a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for a candid review.

The Saint Laurent Muse is a great historical fiction book. Ig had historical fiction as well as fashion! A five star book!

This book was pure entertainment! Well-written, and much more daring that I had initially anticipated, but I enjoyed that. These people were complex and all of their complexities coupled with the carte blanche access they had at their fingertips made for quite interesting (albeit, sad) lives.