We speak to legendary fashion photographer Roxanne Lowit on the art of backstage photography and her friendship with Yves Saint Laurent
Before Mario Testino, before Rankin, before Juergen Teller, there was Roxanne Lowit. Considered the first celebrity photographer, she was a backstage staple during fashion week in the 1970s and 80s, capturing the decadence and excess of the era with a free-spirited ease. In 1978, she was snuck backstage at YSL by Jerry Hall and Pat Cleveland, and the day ended with Lowit shooting Saint Laurent on top of the Eiffel Tower for Andy Warhol’s Interview Magazine, beginning their close friendship and her prolific career.
Her photography is shared in a new book which offers a candid insight into her work for Yves Saint Laurent, from his androgynous 1970s tailoring to the geometric block-colour dresses of the 90s. Her photographs sit in good company, alongside reminiscences from Jerry Hall, Valerie Steel, Grace Jones and Paloma Picasso. Here we speak to Lowit about her fashion memories.
Roxanne Lowit on breaking the industry...
"I had no credentials to be a front-of-house photographer. At the time, photographers were these big guys with furry jackets and lots of cameras and lenses hanging off their necks. They were just photographers, they weren’t fashion photographers. I came along all dressed up and looking completely different — I was little and thin and they would say, "You’re not a photographer, you don’t look like one." So, because I couldn’t get in the front, I went in the back. I was taken backstage for the first time by Antonio Lopez, Pat Cleveland and Jerry Hall. I had no idea how amazing it was going to be. I ended up photographing Yves Saint Laurent on top of the Eiffel tower for Andy Warhol."
On Yves Saint Laurent...
"Nobody broke Yves’s aura backstage. Nobody approached him, except maybe Loulou de la Falaise. He was a perfectionist and he never felt that anything was below him. He did everything — he fixed the girls’ scarves, he adjusted the coats and the hems and he made sure every girl went out perfectly. Fashion was his art and he was just brilliant. He did everything ahead of the curve: he did transparency before anybody else and he did the tuxedo, which empowered women and changed the way we live."
"Yves Saint Laurent did everything ahead of the curve...he did the tuxedo, which empowered women and changed the way we live"
On models...
"The models of that moment were completely different. They played more to the audience and they had a lot more personality onstage. They didn’t just walk seriously towards a video camera without smiling, with everyone doing the same. You knew when you were at a Saint Laurent show — the red lipsticks, the clothes, you just knew where you were. Similarly, you knew Sonia Rykiel: black and white stripes on knits. Huge shoulder pads, it was Claude Montana. Everybody had their own look at the time, it was more creative and less manufactured."
On her favourite look...
"Mounia wore a beautiful outfit which was Picasso blue, pink and white. It sounds ridiculous but it looked gorgeous. I loved the tuxedos. It changed my life and made fashion easy and chic."
Yves Saint Laurent by Roxanne Lowit is out now, published by Thames & Hudson.
Words by Mhairi Graham
