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Director Roger Vadim famously plucked 15 year old Brigitte Bardot from obscurity, gave her a blond-over and launched her into the outer orbits of fame as one of the original sex kittens. In Vadim’s 1986 memoir; Bardot,Deneuve, Fonda, my life with the three most beautiful women in the world , he describes applying his effective aesthetic to all three of these women with whom he was romantically involved, catalyzing their careers.  In the next few installments of “Before They Were Blond” we will take a look at a range of women who reinvented themselves with peroxide.  For a roundup of some more notable bleachers click here.

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Catherine Deneuve, a close friend and early muse of Yves Saint-Laurent, attends the fashion designer’s funeral mass at Eglise Saint-Roch in Paris. Deneuve is pictured on the right in 1966 modelling a YSL dress from the Rive Gauche collection. Her friendship with Yves Saint-Laurent spanned over 30 years. He dressed her in some of her best known films throughout her career, including as Belle du Jour, La Chamade, La Sirène du Mississippi, Liza, and The Hunger. She was also a model for the designer’s skincare line in the early 1990s. Saint-Laurent died June 1st at the age of 71 in his Paris home.

Some of the biggest names in the fashion cannon were in attendance, such as Vivienne Westwood, Kenzo, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Sonia Rykiel and John Galiano. French President Nicolas Sarkozy also offered his condolences to Saint-Laurent longtime business partner and past companion, Pierre Berge. Saint-Laurent’s funeral mass was conducted in a very traditional manner using sheaves of wheat to decorate the casket. Wheat symbolizes that the mourned individual lived a long and fruitful life, a symbol that fits perfectly for this influential contributer to 20th century fashion.

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