Today the fashion world lost an icon and a visionary!
Born Yves Saint Laurent, August 1, 1936 in Oran, in what was then known as French Algeria, leaving home to work for French designer Christian Dior at the tender age of 17.
In 1957 Dior’s sudden death, left Yves, at 21, in charge of preventing the Dior house from financial ruin.
Shortly after this success, he was conscripted to serve in the French army during the Algerian War of Independence. After a short lived stint, the stress led the fragile Saint Laurent to be institutionalized in a French mental hospital, where he underwent psychiatric treatment, including electroshock therapy, for a nervous breakdown.
Saint Laurent was released from Dior in 1962 and began his own label, YSL, which was financed by his then partner, Pierre Bergé.
1976, saw the couple split romantically, however they remained business partners, and the label took fashion by storm in the 60’s and 70’s, popularizing trends like safari jackets for both sexes, slim fit pants and thigh high boots, the beatnik look, and my favourite of all, and arguably his greatest creation “Le Smoking Suit” circa 1966, this same year also saw him as the founding father of “Ready-to-Wear”, in an attempt to democratize fashion, with Rive Gauche.
He was known and respected for breaking the rules, and recreating fashion culture, he was the first designer to use African American models in his runway shows his muses both famous and infamous, women such as Loulou de la Falaise, Talitha Pol-Getty and iconic French actress Catherine Deneuve was amongst his favourites.
He was the first living fashion designer to be honored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and was awarded the rank of Commander of the Légion d’Honneur by French president Jacques Chirac.
In 2002 Yves retired from the catwalk, and became increasingly reclusive spending much of his time in Marrakech, Morocco.
His legacy can be remembered through a foundation he set up with Pierre Bergé in Paris to document the history of the house of YSL, featuring more than 15,000 objects and 5,000 pieces of clothing.
This father of fashion, died on June 1, 2008, at home in Paris. The exact cause of death is currently unknown, but reports claim that he had been suffering from a long term illness.
He will be dearly missed by the fashion world and those he touched through his life’s work.
