We chat with author C. W. Gortner about The Saint Laurent Muse, which sees the Paris runways of the 70s come to wild and splashy life in this novel of fashion’s “It Girl” Loulou de la Falaise and her life partying and designing with Yves Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld, and Halston.
Hi, C.W.! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
A bit. Okay. I’m half-Spanish by birth. My love of history – there was a ruined medieval castle not far from where I lived—was born in those years, as was my obsession with reading and writing. So, I’ve been a writer all my life. I never thought to make my living as a writer until I sold my first historical novel in 2006. I’ve since published thirteen historical novels, with The Saint Laurent Muse. I love animals, and my husband and I care for feral cats who find refuge in our garden in the city (you’d be surprised how many there are). To earn a feral cat’s trust takes patience and it’s a gift. What else? Well, I’m a writer. I read a lot. I like gaming. I’m a lifelong nerd.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
My parents moved to Andalucía in 1970, during the final years of Franco’s regime. I grew up without much television, as channels were state-controlled, so I read voraciously. Franco was a fascist dictator who mellowed in his last decade, or as mellow as any fascist dictator can be. My dad was an architect who opened a restaurant in Spain. My mom is from Madrid, so they decided to try their luck in southern Spain, where my mom’s family lived. I had an idyllic childhood in a country frozen in time. Of course, I didn’t see or understand fascist censorship and repression as a child. Many British retirees and Canadian wanderers had also moved to southern Spain for cheap rent, year-long sunshine, and the Mediterranean beaches. Malaga at the time was much like a hippie commune, so I was exposed to different people from all over the world. With the influx of ex-patriates, books in English were widely available, and I fell in love with British historical fiction. When I started writing as a boy, I combined my love of reading with the history I saw around me in Spain. I carried that love with me when my family returned to the U.S. I’ve never stopped reading or writing.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: MURDER MOST ROYAL by Jean Plaidy
- The one that made you want to become an author: Same as above. Oh, and JAWS. JAWS scared the crap out of me. I lived by the sea, so…
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: I’ve re-read Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s LOVE IN THE TIMES OF CHOLERA several times. To me, it is a masterpiece, the perfect novel. But the book I often can’t stop thinking about is whatever I’m currently writing. You need to be obsessive to finish a manuscript.
Your latest novel, The Saint Laurent Muse, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
1970s Paris. Fashion. Gay love.
What can readers expect?
A great story about an evanescent time in fashion that hopefully readers will love. The Saint Laurent Muse is the story of a young woman, Loulou de la Falaise, adrift in the world, who befriends and becomes the collaborative muse of world-famous Yves Saint Laurent in the early 1970s. It’s about artistic creation, the search for self, and how delusion can be a powerful force. It’s about falling in love, in all the ways we can.
Where did the inspiration for The Saint Laurent Muse come from?
I worked in fashion in my twenties. I’d heard stories about Saint Laurent’s mercurial temperament and decades-long collaboration with de la Falaise. There was a dark rumor about a vicious rivalry with Karl Lagerfeld over a dissolute young man, but no one seemed to know the truth. Lagerfeld himself never spoke publicly about it until toward the end of his life. The seed of the story was there, but it took years to uncover enough to write a novel. Also, it had to be the right time. I understand the characters much better with age. As a writer who depicts real-life people, I must always practice empathy. This novel required it, because it was a different era, when people in fashion often lived and loved recklessly.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
All of it. Yves Saint Laurent is legendary. He was openly gay, in a time when male fashion designers hid their sexuality. And Loulou de la Falaise is legendary for her style, her “chic,” but she’s mostly known only to fashion devotees. The YSL brand is still successful today because many of Saint Laurent’s enduring looks were inspired by Loulou. She was the artist behind the artist, so I had a multi-layered story. She was also daring in her youth. Her arrival in Yves’s life spurred him to take bold risks. It was wonderful to explore, if very sad at times because of how manic Yves could be.
Can you tell us about your research process for The Saint Laurent Muse?
To start, I read every biography published about Saint Laurent and the people surrounding him. Then I dug into archival journalism for articles about the era, and again, the people. Gossip pages existed in the 1970s, so while I had to take most of it with a grain of salt, the material would lead me down revealing byways to interviews with people who personally witnessed the events I describe.
Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?
It was my most challenging novel to research because Yves Saint Laurent’s career is well documented, but his personal life is confounded by self-mythologization (a fashion mainstay) and contradiction. Loulou de la Falaise hasn’t been the subject of a biography, so her earlier years are elusive. There’s plenty of publicity from the time period, so as a novelist, I had to decide, based on reputable sources, where the truth lay. It’s not uncommon when writing historical fiction; we must make informed choices, doing our utmost to stay true to what is documented. In the end, however, it is a work of fiction, inspired by real-life events.
What’s next for you?
First, a break to fill my creative well. I’ve been working on a fantasy trilogy off and on for years. I want to finish it.
Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up this year?
Samantha Shannon’s third installment in her Orange Tree Priory novels, which are epic in scope and so much fun to read. And whatever catches my eye. I’m a browser by nature and prefer print, so I just walk into a bookstore or a library and get lost, invariably emerging with more books than I can read in a year. My TBR pile overflows. I also read some indie authors and will be on the lookout for their latest releases.
