Naughty Lulu, the Yves Saint Laurent comic strip.
In 1956, the twenty-year-old Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent was already working as an assistant to Christian Dior, sketching ideas for upcoming collections. In the evenings, one of the couture house’s employees, Jean-Pierre Frère, would have fun cross-dressing: “Often, after six o’clock, a Christian Dior employee would ‘dress up.’ One evening he pulled his pants up to his knees. I remember he wore long black socks. In the booth used by the fashion models, he found a red tulle petticoat and a [Venetian] gondolier’s hat. I was impressed by the stubbornly sly appearance of this very short man and said to him, “You are naughty Lulu [Tu es la vilaine Lulu]”.
This anecdote gave birth to the character of Naughty Lulu [La Vilaine Lulu], who would inspire Yves Saint Laurent to create his mischievous comic strip.
From the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris:
Ten years later, in 1967, the writer Françoise Sagan encouraged Saint Laurent to publish Lulu’s adventures with the Éditions Tchou. This album has been republished three times.
The book is available – for a price. The sites do have sample pages from the book.
Later editions are more reasonable. Or even free.
Five years ago The New York Times had an article about Yves’ comic strip museum exhibit.
From a 2010 Toronto Star review of the book by Chantal Braganza:
Sophistication and elegance could easily describe Yves Saint Laurent’s near-50-year career as a fashion designer, but not so much his short-lived stint as a cartoonist.
In one book, the man largely credited for dressing women in sleek smoking suits and feminine safari jackets created a character who swills scotch, poisons her classmates and sets houses on fire.
Her name is Lulu.
In a series of 24 black, white and red comic strips, Lulu and her pet rat dream up a series of terrible, and sometimes endearing, adventures.
But be warned: This is no children’s book. With racy jokes and images of violence, it caused quite a stir in its first release.
