Marianne Faithfull

The structured 'Saint Laurent' suit was made for Marianne when she became one of the faces of the fashion house in May 2014. Known as the 'Saint Laurent' music project, Marianne featured alongside Marilyn Manson, Courtney Love and Kim Gorden in the campaign. The musicians wore items from the collection and also soundtracked the runway shows. This suit was a personal favourite and aside from the original advert, Marianne wore it on numerous occasions. This included a photo shoots by Eric Guillemain to promote her album ‘Give My Love To London’, Rosaline Shahnavaz at the Chiltern Firehouse for AnOther in July 2014 and by Pal Hansen taken in her Paris apartment for the Sunday Times Magazine in August 2014. Marianne also wore the jacket on the BBC music programme ‘Later With Jools Holland’ broadcast on 23rd September 2014, and onstage on several occasions including a performance at Quaglino's on November 5th 2014 and at her concert at L’Olympia in Paris on 20th November 2014 during her tour for ‘Give My Love To London’.

The 'Chloé' jacket was worn when Marianne attended the Louis Vuitton Menswear Spring/Summer 2016 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on June 25th, 2015. Marianne got to know Clare Waight Keller in Paris when she was the lead designer at Chloé from 2011 to 2017. Faithfull wore a number of pieces designed by her and Clare Waight Keller’s final collection at Chloé paid homage to Marianne with some pieces based around the iconic costumes from her film ‘Girl On A Motorcycle’ including the black leather body suit by Lanvin.

The flamboyant John Galliano jacket she acquired during her friendship with the designer. Marianne had got to know Galliano in the mid 2000’s when he was lead designer at Dior and he made several outfits for her which she wore privately and onstage including a top based on his famous newspaper print dress from the ‘Fly Girl’ collection worn on her 2005 tour in support of ‘Before The Poison’. 

Marianne has always enjoyed fashion and thoes part of the creative process, she states:

"The 'Saint Laurent' smoking jacket is a masterpiece. The style is so pared back, almost austere which I like so much. It’s really one of my favourites and I wore it a lot - just with a white blouse. The combination of black and white, especially onstage, always looks chic – and dramatic for the audience."

"John Galliano was a genius and so nice. He was very interested in the history of clothes and style. He did some very beautiful clothes for me, and we got to hang out a bit. In the nicest possible way, I thought he was like an old hippie, it’s probably why I liked him so much!"

Marianne reflects fondly on her friendship with Yves Saint Laurent in her 2008 memoir, Memories, dreams and reflections:

"I went out the other night to get a breath of fresh air and ran into Monsieur Saint-Laurent and his dog – a dear dog indeed. I love bulldogs – and Yves. These days it’s getting difficult to tell them apart, actually. They’re beginning to resemble each other in a startling way. Running into them sets off happy memories. Those wild, wonderful days we spent together in Morocco, getting high as kites and lounging on embroidered pillows."

Literature

M. Faithfull, 2008, Memories, dreams and reflections, Harper Perennial, p. 235.