Loulou de la Falaise was born in England in 1947 to a nebulously titled family. Upon divorcing, her parents abandoned her and her brother to foster care. At age 19, Loulou married a hereditary Irish knight but left him when she realized that she had no interest in the hostess's life. She became an "it" girl in Swinging London, and experimented with drugs, alcohol, sex and, most crucially, her wardrobe: "Three pins and two pieces of cloth, and she has four ravishing evening dresses," gushed an admirer. She was a fashion editor's assistant at the British magazine Queen, and in 1972 was invited to work for the taste-making Paris designer Yves Saint Laurent. So began an affectionate and mutually nonthreatening working relationship that left its mark on the scene. Fashion editor André Leon Talley put it this way: "As Yves's creative collaborator for three decades, Loulou helped define twentieth-century fashion."
Like all good biographies, Loulou and Yves: The Untold Story of Loulou de la Falaise and the House of Saint Laurent is a portrait of not just its subject, who died in 2011, but of her place and time. Studded with photos both black-and-white and color, the book is cobbled together from print sources; interviews with Loulou's family members, friends and associates; and blocks of connective tissue supplied by Christopher Petkanas, who knew his subject personally. The result is a crackling good read with a pleasing superabundance of salt, wit and dish; even the contributor bios are snarky. --Nell Beram, author and freelance writer