Loulou de la Falaise

Loulou de la Falaise (born 1948) is a fashion muse and designer associated with Yves Saint-Laurent.

Her mother Maxime de la Falaise was a noted fashionista of her day and a model for Schiaparelli. Loulou therefore grew up in the world of high fashion. After a short-lived first marriage to the Desmond FitzGerald, 29th Knight of Glin, she moved to Paris and became the friend and creative partner of Yves Saint Laurent. According to "The Independent", she helped inspire his 1966 female tuxedo "Le Smoking" and his see-through blouses. The designer and his former muse collaborated until his death. [Hermione Eyre "The chic parade". Independent, The (London). Apr 14, 2007. FindArticles.com. Retrieved 21 Nov. 2007. [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20070414/ai_n19018212/pg_2] ]

De la Falaise now runs Maison de Loulou, a Left Bank boutique in Paris.

Family

Born Louise Vava Lucia Henriette de la Falaise, she is the daughter of Count Alain de la Falaise, a French writer and translator, and his first wife, the former Maxime Birley, a model of the Fifties [ Runway Divas: Maxime de la Falaise [http://www.divasthesite.com/Runway_Divas/Maxime_Falaise.htm] . She made the International Best-Dressed List Hall of Fame in 2004. [http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/bestdressed/bestdressed_women?currentPage=2] , as did her granddaughter Lucie in 1997. See article "Design & Interiors: A life less ordinary; Cecil Beaton called Maxime de la Falaise `the only truly chic Englishwoman'." by Ian Phillips. The Independent (London, England)| Date: 10/9/2004" [http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-123031115.html] ] , then a cookbook author [Author of Seven Centuries of English Cooking, issued in 1978. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE3DC153AF935A25751C1A964958260] ] and a newspaper columnist. [De la Falaise authored "Sur l'Album de la Comtesse" in the French newspaper "Le Canard enchaîné". [http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Album_de_la_Comtesse] ] Her maternal grandfather was the portrait painter Sir Oswald Birley, and her uncle Mark Birley (1930-2007).

She has a brother, Alexis de la Falaise, an interior designer, who appeared in the Andy Warhol film "Tub Girls"; Alexis has two children, both models. His daughter, Lucie de la Falaise, also a model and actress, is married to Marlon Richards, the son of Rolling Stone Keith Richards and Anita Pallenberg. A nephew Daniel is also a model.

La Falaise's first husband was Desmond FitzGerald, the 29th Knight of Glin; they had no children. After their divorce, she married the artist Thadée Klossowski, a son of the painter Balthus, by whom she has a daughter, Anna. [http://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/05/on-rue-st-honore-paris/]

A great-uncle was Henri de la Falaise, Marquis de La Falaise de La Coudraye (1898-1972), a film director and third husband of American actress Gloria Swanson.She is a distant cousin of French Olympic gold medallist in fencing Count Georges de la Falaise (1870-1910).

Notes

References

* Fraser-Cavassoni, Natasha (2005). "Loulou's Back in Town" "Mail on Sunday" 7 March 2005. Retrieved 21 November 2007. [http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-2547984.html] . Loulou de la Falaise was muse to Yves Saint Laurent for three decades. Now she has her own eponymous collection and, with the opening of her second Parisian boutique, is firmly established as the queen of French chic.

*Columbia, David Patrick (2007). "NEW YORKER MARK BIRLEY PASSES - The man who turned built-in-elegance into a centimillion dollar restaurant empire" . San Francisco Sentinel, 27 August 2007. Retrieved 21 November 2007. [http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/?p=4417]