Yves Saint Laurent (1936-2008)

Yves Saint Laurent/

photo/ Duane Michals, Vogue, December 1976

Yves Saint Laurent created six collections at Dior, including lower hemlines (1958), raised skirts (1959), black jackets and the "Beat Look" (1960). The "Beat" collection, inspired by the art students who hung about the Left Bank jazz clubs, was the designer's final collection for Christian Dior.

"I couldn't speak in front of him [Christian Dior]. He taught me the basis of my art. Whatever was to happen next, I never forgot the years I spent at by his side."
Yves Saint Laurent/

That's how he met with Michel de Brunhoff, editor-in-chief of the French Vogue, who introduced him to Christian Dior. Yves became Dior’s first and only design assistant at the age of 19.

Within just two years, Dior confided to Mme Saint Laurent that her son was “the one who’ll succeed me". Tragically, soon after, Dior died suddenly of a heart attack.

Yves Saint Laurent became head designer of Christian Dior in 1957. He was only 21! His first collection for the house, the "Trapeze" collection, was presented in 1958 and was an absolute success. The next year this collection was the first to be shown in Moscow, Russia.

Yves Saint Laurent was a Frenchman born on 1st August 1936 in Oran, Algeria, where he spent all his youth.

He got engaged with fashion since an early age, as he designed clothes for his mother and sisters. Sadly, he was bullied at school for being effeminate.

After graduation he went to Paris to study at the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture and won the third and then the first prize at the International Wool Secretariat competition.

photo/ Yves Saint Laurent for Christian Dior by Wily Maywald, 1958

photo/ Victoria Station, November 1958, Corbis

He sued the company for breach of contract and established his own house in 1961, with the proceeds from the lawsuit, alongside his then partner and impresario Pierre Bergé. Saint Laurent and Bergé sign a deal with American businessman J. Mack Robinson securing a $700,000 investment over three years, in exchange for 80 percent equity.

He got to be a visionary, groundbreaking and provocative fashion designer for his time, as he created the Mondrian-inspired shift dresses (1965), "Le Smoking" or the "Tuxedo Look" (1966), "African Look" (1967), the "Safari Look" (1968), Transparency and Jumpsuit (1968), the "Chubby" (1970), the forties collection (1971).

In 1976 he created a magnificent collection inspired by the fantastical costumes of Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. “I needed a violent explosion of Fantasy. This collection was a dream that I have had for a long time. I have always wanted to do a collection that included everything that I love in my life. I have always wanted to do a collection that was a reflection of all my tastes.” Yves Saint Laurent said.

The Fall/Winter collection of 1979 was an homage to Picasso and Diaghilev. Yves was a pioneer in expressing the concept of unisex. Yves Saint Laurent's masculine shapes triumphed in the 80s, with collections featuring boxy jackets hand-beaded with Van Gogh sunflowers and inspired by artists as diverse as Jean Cocteau and Henri Matisse.

"I think it’s so hard for anybody to understand now how revolutionary his ideas were. The idea of wearing pants to the office!
[...] Those dresses looked like they had come down from the skies, like clouds had dropped from the heavens and onto the body. Heaven knows how he made them, but that’s where the skill came in. He was able to turn his dream into a reality on a woman’s body.
[...] It was a kind of perfection that, of course, went out of fashion. And, frankly, the later shows were by no means dull, but they were perfection to a fault. But you know, at least he stuck with his thing and believed in it. He believed in a certain kind of glamour."
Suzy Menkes, the International Herald Tribune fashion critic and T Magazine columnist 2008/

L'Eléphant Blanc, The Trapeze Collection, Yves Saint Laurent for Christian Dior, S/S 1958, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

photo/ China Machado in Christian Dior by Richard Avedon, 1959

photo/ Associated Press

photo/ Associated Press

"He elevated some of those styles that were formerly considered too exotic or too lowed down to a stature that allowed them to be worn by the upper crust." New York Times 2008/

"If I had to choose one design among all I have created, it would be "Le Smoking". Every year since 1966 it has been part of my collection. In a sense it is the YSL trademark."
Yves Saint Laurent/

In 1960 he was fired by Marcel Boussac, the owner, when he was drafted into the French Army during the Algerian war. Truth is that he had previous disagreements with Boussac. Saint Laurent was replaced by Marc Bohan, who was already working in the house.

photo/ Mondrian dress 1965, Philippe Wojazer, Reuters

photo/ "Tuxedo", 1966, Reuters

photo/ Express, Getty Images

Biana Jagger wore a Yves Saint Laurent suit at her wedding to Mick Jagger

photo/ David Teboul, 2002, Empire Pictures

photo/ Barton Silverman,Central, 1972, The New York Times

"I have often said that I wish I had invented blue jeans: the most spectacular, the most practical, the most relaxed and nonchalant. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity – all I hope for in my clothes."
Yves Saint Laurent/

Unfortunately, four fashion shows a year along with Saint Laurent’s heavy drinking, drug abuse and constant club-going led him to depression and several nervous breakdowns. On the other hand, his house continued to expand over the next decades. Saint Laurent and Berge split romantically in 1976 but remained business partners.

He kick-started the ready-to-wear movement in 1966 with the launch of the first Rive Gauche boutique. This move tapped into the mass-production 1960s spirit of democratization, youth, and rebellion. In 1973 ready-to-wear designers started showing collections in Paris twice a year, following a similar schedule to haute couture.

"I often feel incapable of communicating with people, even with those that I love and admire profoundly, because I don’t have the time and because I am in a frenzy.”

Yves Saint Laurent at Vogue/

“I’ve made a rope to hang myself with. I’d love to be able to do fashion when I want to, but I’m a prisoner of my own commercial empire.”
Yves Saint Laurent at Newsweek/

2002 Photo: Jean-pierre Muller/Agence France-Presse

"It’s as though he has a layer of skin missing. He’s very sensitive to whatever is going on and feels things very, very deeply.”

Susan Train/

"Yves Saint Laurent would travel to Marrakech for a fortnight on 1st December and 1st June of each year in order to design his haute couture collections. Morocco, a country he discovered in 1966, was to have a major influence on his work and his colours, as did all his imaginary travels: Japan, India, Russia, China and Spain all provided sources of inspiration for his collections."

Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent/

In 1983, Saint Laurent became the first living fashion designer to be honored by the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art with a solo exhibition. That exhibition was followed by retrospectives in Paris, Beijing, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tokyo and Sydney, Australia.

In July 1989, the Yves Saint Laurent company is successfully floated on the Paris stock market. In 2001, he was awarded the rank of Commander of the Legion d'Honneur by French president Jacques Chirac.

The following year, he and Berge created a foundation in Paris to trace the history of the house of Yves Saint Laurent, complete with 15,000 objects and 5,000 pieces of clothing.

Among the women of style who wore his clothes were Catherine Deneuve, Laren Bacall, Paloma Picasso, Nan Kempner, Marella Agnelli and Marie-Hélène de Rothchild.

"Whatever he does, women of all ages, from all over the world, follow." Diana Vreeland, legendary American fashion magazine editor/

"A woman’s wardrobe shouldn’t change every six months. You should be able to use the pieces you already own and add to them. Because they are like timeless classics.”

Yves Saint Laurent/

Back in 2002 when he held his one and only press conference to announce his retirement, he said,

"I am very proud that women around the world wear pantsuits, cabans, trench coats... I tell myself that I have created the wardrobe for contemporary women, that I participated in the transformation of my times. I did it with clothes, which is surely less important than music, architecture, painting and many other art forms, but whatever the case may be, I did it. You will forgive me for feeling some vanity, but I have thought for some time now that fashion does not only exist to embellish women, but also to reassure them, to give them confidence, to allow them to accept themselves. I have always risen against the fantasies of some people who satisfy their own ego through fashion. I have wanted, on the contrary, to place myself at the service of women. Meaning to serve them.

[...] Every man needs aesthetic phantoms in order to exist. I have known fear and the terrors of solitude. I have known those fair-weather friends we call tranquillisers and drugs. I have known the prison of depression and the confinement of hospital. But one day, I was able to come through all of that, dazzled yet sober.

[...] Finally, I want to thank you, you who are here and those who are not, for having been present through the years. For having supported, understood, loved me. I will not forget you."

The Spring/Summer of 2002 was his last collection, showcased at the Centre Georges-Pompidou. It included a retrospective show with over 300 models. The documentaries "Yves Saint Laurent: His Life and Times" and "Yves Saint Laurent: 5 Avenue Marceau 75116 Paris" were released.

Then he retired and became increasingly isolated, living at his homes in Normandy and Morocco with his dog Moujik.

In 2007, he was awarded the rank of Grand officier de la Legion d'Honneur by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

After a series of false reports, Yves Saint Laurent passed away on the 1st of June 2008 of brain cancer at his Paris home. He was 71 years old.

"His styles epitomised a certain kind of seductive, wealthy, intelligent French woman - Catherine Deneuve, in other words, who frequently sat in the front row at his shows, and it's a look that is still as desirable today as it was 40 years ago."

Alexandra Topping 2008/

“[Yves Saint Laurent] designs for women who lead double lives.”

Catherine Deneuve, actor and friend/

the "Trapeze" collection/