Yves Saint Laurent

For more information on Yves-Henri-Donat-Mathieu Saint Laurent, visit Britannica.com.

French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent is closely associated with the ‘Swinging Sixties’, an outlook embodied in his ‘see through’ blouses of 1968 and his incorporation of ‘street style’ into fashion goods. He studied at the school of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture and, after winning first prize in an International Wool Secretariat Competition for a cocktail dress in 1954, went to work for Dior on the recommendation of the editor of French Vogue. He became head designer at Dior in 1957, producing six collections before he was replaced in 1960, when he undertook military service. He started his own couture house two years later, going on to launch Y, his first perfume for women (1964), the Rive Gauche boutiques for women (1966), and menswear (1974). He also brought his design expertise to bear on other fields, styling the actress Catherine Deneuve for the Luis Bunuel film Belle du jour, a fashion-film star relationship that gained recognition for Saint Laurent with an ‘Oscar’ award from Harper's Bazaar. He established a reputation for his ready-to-wear designs over succeeding decades but stopped putting on major fashion shows for his ready-to-wear collections in 1996, the same year in which he marked a first amongst couturiers by transmitting his couture show live on the internet. His prominent place in French national culture was underlined by being chosen to stage a large-scale fashion entertainment in the Stade du France on the occasion of the World Cup in 1998. Furthermore, not only did he and his fashion output receive considerable coverage in the fashion press, but his work was also seen internationally in many exhibitions. These included the Yves Saint Laurent: 25 Years of Design exhibition (1983) of his major designs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, a retrospective exhibition of his work from 1958 to 1985 in Beijing (1985), with further retrospectives at the Musée des Arts de la Mode in Paris (1986, also shown in Moscow), Tokyo (1990), and elsewhere. Throughout his career Saint Laurent has received many awards, including the International Award from the Council of the Fashion Designers of America (1982), receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award from the same body in 1999. In 1985 he was awarded the Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur by the president of France, François Mitterand.

• Born: Yves Henri Donat Mathieu Saint Laurent in Oran, Algeria, 1 August 1936.
• Died: June 1, 2008, in Paris, France.
• Education: Studied at L'École de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture, 1954.
• Career: Independent clothing stylist, Paris, 1953-54; designer/partner, 1954-57, chief designer, Dior, Paris, 1957-60; began designing for theater and film, 1959; founder/designer, Yves Saint Laurent, Paris, from 1962; Rive Gauche ready-to-wear line introduced, 1966; menswear line introduced, 1974; firm purchased by Elf-Sanofi SA, 1993; designer Elber Albaz hired, 1998-2000; acquired by Gucci Group NV, 1999; Tom Ford took over as creative director, 2000; renovated Madison Avenue store reopened, 2001; retired from designing, 2002; fragrances include Y 1964; Rive Gauche, 1971; Opium, 1978; Paris, 1983; Champagne, (renamed Yvresse, 1996) 1993; Opium relaunch, 1995; Opium for Men, 1996; Baby Doll, 1999; Nu, 2001.
• Exhibitions:Yves Saint Laurent, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983; Yves Saint Laurent et le Théâtre, Musée des Arts de la Mode, Paris, 1986; Yves Saint Laurent, 28 Ans de Création, Musée des Arts de la Mode, 1986; retrospective, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, 1987.
• Awards: International Wool Secretariat award, 1954; Neiman Marcus award, 1958; Harper's Bazaar award, 1966; Council of Fashion Designers of America award, 1981; CFDA Lifetime Achievement award, 1999; Fifi Fragrance award (for Baby Doll), 2000.
• Address: 5 avenue Marceau, 75116 Paris, France.
• Website:www.yslonline.com.

A great adaptor, Yves Saint Laurent responds in his designs to history, art, and literature. Vast ranges of themes are incorporated into his work, from the Ballet Russes to the writings of Marcel Proust, who inspired his taffeta gowns of 1971; the paintings of Picasso to the minimalist work of Mondrian and the de Stijl movement, shown in the primary colors of his geometrically blocked wool jersey dresses of 1965.

Saint Laurent has a great love of the theatre. He has designed costumes for many stage productions during his long career and the theatre is an important source of ideas for his couture collections. Flamboyant ensembles, such as the Shakespeare wedding dress of brocade and damask of 1980 and his extravagant series of garments inspired by a romantic vision of Russian dress, reflect his passion for theatrical costume.

Less successful have been his attempts to engage with countercultural movements such as the 1960 collection based on the bohemian Left Bank look. The criticism leveled by the press on being confronted with the avant garde on the couture catwalk led to Saint Laurent's replacement as head designer for Dior, even though his 1958 trapeze line had been an enormous success and he had been fêted as the savior of Parisian couture. At this time the House of Dior was responsible for nearly half of France's fashion exports, so there was a heavy burden of financial responsibility on Saint Laurent's shoulders.

The 1960 collection appropriated the Left Bank style with knitted turtlenecks and black leather jackets, crocodile jackets with mink collars, and—a design which was to crop up again and again in his repertoire—the fur jacket with knitted sleeves. In 1968 Saint Laurent produced a tailored trouser collection reflecting his sympathy with the cause of the student marchers who had brought the streets of Paris to a standstill. The clothes were black and accessorized with headbands and fringes.

Where Saint Laurent sets the standards for world fashion is in his feminizing of the basic shapes of the male wardrobe. Like Chanel before him, he responded to the subtleties of masculine tailoring seeking to provide a similar sort of style for women. He produced a whole series of elegant day clothes, such as the shirt dress, which became a staple of the sophisticated woman's wardrobe of the 1970s. Saint Laurent is justly acclaimed for his sharply tailored suits with skirts or trousers, le smoking (a simple black suit with satin lapels based on the male tuxedo, which became an alternative to the frothily feminine evening gown), safari jackets, brass buttoned pea jackets, flying suits—in fact many of the chic classics of postwar women's style.

Saint Laurent's designs contain no rigid shaping or over-elaborate cutting but depend on a perfection of line and a masterful understanding of printed textiles and the use of luxurious materials. He worked with silk printers to produce glowing fabric designs incorporating a brilliant palette of clashing colors such as hot pink, violet, and sapphire blue. A sharp contrast is produced with his simple, practical daywear and romantic, exotic eveningwear, which is more obviously seductive with its extensive beadwork, embroidery, satin, and sheer fabrics such as silk chiffon.

Less interested in fashion than in style, Saint Laurent is and will always be a classicist, designing elegant, tasteful, and sophisticated apparel, perfectly handcrafted in the manner of the old couturiers. He did, however, use industrial methods to produce his Rive Gauche ready-to-wear line, created in 1966, and sold in his own franchised chain of boutiques. The popular line was later taken over by Alber Elbaz, who had worked for Guy Laroche, in 1998, and then by Tom Ford in 2000.

There was been a radical change in the small company founded by Yves Saint Laurent and business partner Pierre Bergé in 1961. It became a massive financial conglomerate, listed on the Paris Bourse, the result of profitable licensing deals. In the 1990s the firm changed ownership several times, ending up as part of the Gucci Group in 1999. Called "fashion's shiniest trophy," by the International Herald Tribune (16 November 1999), the YSL acquisition was another example of the fashion industry's tightening consolidation.

In the 21st century, YSL remained an acclaimed couture house, though its namesake and Rive Gauche designer Tom Ford rarely saw eye to eye. In January 2002, however, such creative differences were moot: Saint Laurent announced he was leaving the firm that bore his name and retiring. Roundly considered the last of the true haute couturiers, the industry lost one of its most elegant and inspired purveyors.

Publications

By Saint Laurent:

Books
• Yves Saint Laurent, New York & London, 1984.
• Yves Saint Laurent par Yves Saint Laurent, Paris, 1986.
• Bergé, Pierre, and Yves Saint Laurent, Yves Saint Laurent, London & New York, 1996, 1997.
• Yves Saint Laurent: Forty Years of Creation, New York, 1998.
• Love, by Yves Saint Laurent, New York, 2000.

On Saint Laurent:

Books
• Lynam, Ruth, ed., Couture: An Illustrated History of the Great Paris Designers and Their Creations, New York, 1972.
• Madsen, Axel, Living for Design: The Yves Saint Laurent Story, New York, 1979.
• Milbank, Caroline Rennolds, Couture: The Great Designers, New York, 1985.
• Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Yves Saint Laurent et le Théâtre [exhibition catalogue], Paris, 1986.
• Art Gallery of New South Wales, Yves Saint Laurent, Retrospectives [exhibition catalogue], Sydney, New South Wales, 1987.
• Perschetz, Lois, ed., W, The Designing Life, New York, 1987.
• Yves Saint Laurent: Images of Design [exhibition catalogue], New York, 1988.
• Howell, Georgina, Sultans of Style: 30 Years of Fashion and Passion 1960-1990, London, 1990.
• Benaïm, Laurence, Yves Saint Laurent, Paris, 1993, 1995.
• Martin, Richard, and Harold Koda, Orientalism: Visions of the East in Western Dress [exhibition catalogue], Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994.
• Stegemeyer, Anne, Who's Who in Fashion, Third Edition, New York, 1996.
• Rawsthorn, Alice, Yves Saint Laurent, A Biography, London, 1996, 1997.
• Duras, Marguerite, Yves Saint Laurent and Fashion Photography, Munich, 1998.
• Tierney, Tom, Yves Saint Laurent Fashion Review, Mineola, New York, 1999.

Articles
• "YSL Models Rive Gauche for Men in His Marrakesh Home," in Vogue (London), 1 October 1969.
• "Yves Saint Laurent: His Very Special World," in McCall's (New York), January 1970.
• "Mary Russell Interviews Saint Laurent," in Vogue (New York), 1 November 1972.
• "Yves Saint Laurent Talks to Bianca Jagger," in Interview, January 1973.
• Julian, P., "Les années 20 revues dans les années 70 chez Yves Saint Laurent," in Connaissance des Arts (Paris), December 1973.
• Heilpern, John, and Yves Saint Laurent, "Yves Saint Laurent Lives," in The Observer Magazine (London), 5 June 1977.
• "Designers of Influence: Yves Saint Laurent, the Great Educator," in Vogue (London), June 1978.
• "Bravo: 20 Years of Saint Laurent," in Vogue (London), April 1982.
• "A Salute to Yves Saint Laurent," in the New York Times Magazine, 4 December 1983.
• Brubach, Holly, "The Truth in Fiction," in The Atlantic Monthly (Boston, Massachusetts), May 1984.
• Savage, Percy, "Yves Saint Laurent," in Art and Design (London), August 1985.
• Berge, P., "Yves Saint Laurent der Modezeichner," in Du (Zurich), No. 10, 1986.
• "Un équilibre définitif: Saint Laurent Rive Gauche," in Vogue (Paris), February 1986.
• Griggs, Barbara, "All About Yves," in The Observer (London), 25 May 1986.
• Mauries, Patrick, "Yves," in Vogue (Paris), June 1986.
• "Le triomphe de Saint Laurent," in L'Officiel (Paris), June 1986.
• Pringle, Colombe, "Saint Laurent: sanctifié il entre au musée," in Elle (Paris), June 1986.
• Worthington, Christa, "Saint Laurent: Life as a Legend," in Women's Wear Daily (New York), 18 July 1986.
• "Yves Only," in Vogue (London), September 1987.
• "Prince Charmant. Bernard Sanz: L'homme de Saint Laurent," in Profession Textile (Paris), 27 May 1988.
• "Saint Laurent pour toujours," in Profession Textile (Paris), 30 September 1988.
• Duras, Marguerite, "Saint Laurent par Duras," in Elle (Paris), 31 October 1988.
• Hyde, Nina, and Albert Allart, "The Business of Chic," in the National Geographic (Washington, D.C.), July 1989.
• Howell, Georgina, "The Secrets of Saint Laurent," in The Sunday Times Magazine (London), 2 July 1989.
• ——, "Best Couturier: Yves Saint Laurent," in The Sunday Times Magazine (London), 16 July 1989.
• Rafferty, Diane, Charles van Rensselaer and Thomas Cunneen, "The Many Faces of Yves: The Designer of the Half Century," in Connoisseur, February 1990.
• Menkes, Suzy, "Yves of the Revolution," in the Sunday Express Magazine (London), 22 April 1990.
• Germain, Stephanie, "All About Yves," in Paris Passion (Paris), October 1990.
• Roberts, Michael, and André Leon Talley, "Unveiling Saint Laurent," in Interview (New York), June 1991.
• Smith, Liz, "Thirty Years at Fashion's Cutting Edge," in The Times (London), 27 January 1992.
• "Yves Saint Laurent, King of Couture," interview, in Elle (New York), February 1992.
• Brubach, Holly, "Fanfare in a Minor Key," in The New Yorker, 24 February 1992.
• White, Lesley, "The Saint," in Vogue (London), November 1994.
• Kramer, Jane, "The Impresario's Last Act, in the New Yorker (New York), 21 November 1994.
• Schiro, Anne-Marie, "Yves Saint Laurent's Shocking New Color: Black," in the New York Times (New York), 22 March 1995.
• Menkes, Suzy, "YSL Plays Safe While Valentino Shines at Night," in the International Herald Tribune (Paris), 22 March 1995.
• "Saint Laurent: A Fitting End," in WWD, 22 March 1995.
• Menkes, Suzy, "A New Generation in Ready-to-Wear: Alber Elbaz Gets Aboard at YSL," in the International Herald Tribune, 9 June 1998.
• "YSL Coming to Receive CFDA Award," in WWD, 29 March 1999.
• Menkes, Suzy, "Gucci Buys House of YSL for $1-Billion," in the International Herald Tribune, 16 November 1999.
• ——, "New Team, Same Theme at YSL," in the International Herald Tribune, 20 January 2000.
• Socha, Miles, "Ford's YSL: Full Steam Ahead," in WWD, 12 January 2001.
• "At Yves Saint Laurent, Tom's Triumph," in WWD, 15 March 2001.
• Menkes, Suzy, "YSL and the Secrets of Classic Couture," in the International Herald Tribune, 12 July 2001.
• Ozzard, Janet, "Tom's Rive Gauche," in WWD, 6 September 2001.
• Ozzard, Janet, et al, "Tom Ford Expands YSL Store," in DNR, 10 September 2001.
• Diderich, Joelle, "Fashion Legend Yves Saint Laurent Retires," from Reuters Newswire, 7 January 2002.
• Cowdy, Hannah, "YSL: Adieu to a Fashion Generation," available online at ABCNews, www.ABCNews.com, 7 January 2002.

— Caroline Cox; updated by Nelly Rhodes

Quotes:

"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."

"We must never confuse elegance with snobbery."

"It pains me physically to see a woman victimized, rendered pathetic, by fashion."

"A good model can advance fashion by ten years."

"Fashions fade, but style is eternal."

"I knew the youthfulness of the sixties: Talitha and Paul Getty lying on a starlit terrace in Marrakesh, beautiful and damned, and a whole generation assembled as if for eternity where the curtain of the past seemed to lift before an extraordinary future."

See more famous quotes by Yves Saint-Laurent

• Born: Aug 01, 1936
• Died: Jun 01, 2008
• Occupation: Actor
• Active: '60s-2000s
• Major Genres: Drama, Romance
• Career Highlights: Belle de Jour, Too Beautiful for You, Providence
• First Major Screen Credit: Black Tights (1960)

Biography

This article is about the fashion designer. For the clothing brand, see Yves Saint Laurent (brand).

Yves Saint Laurent
Yves Saint Laurent in the 1950s
Born	1 August 1936 Oran, French Algeria
Died	1 June 2008 (aged 71) Paris, France
Nationality	French
Labels	Yves Saint Laurent

Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent, known as Yves Saint Laurent (1 August 1936 – 1 June 2008)^[1][2], was an Algerian-born French fashion designer who was considered one of the greatest figures in French fashion in the 20th century^[3]. In 1985, Caroline Rennolds Milbank wrote, "The most consistently celebrated and influential designer of the past twenty-five years, Yves Saint Laurent can be credited with both spurring the couture's rise from its sixties ashes and with finally rendering ready-to-wear reputable".

Contents 1 Early life 2 Young designer 3 Conscription, illness, and independence 4 Later life and death 4.1 Sale of art collection 5 References 5.1 Bibliography 6 External links

Early life

Yves Mathieu Saint-Laurent was born in Oran, Algeria, which at the time was the capital of a French département. According to Alice Rawsthorn, his family was among the most prominent in Oran.^[4] His father, Charles, a descendant of Baron Mathieu de Mauvières (who officiated at the wedding of Napoleon Bonaparte and Joséphine de Beauharnais), was the president of an insurance company and the owner of a chain of movie theatres. His mother, Lucienne-Andrée (née Wilbaux), the daughter of a Belgian engineer and his Spanish wife, passed her sense of fashion and style on to her son. Yves was the oldest child, born just over a year after his parents' marriage; two daughters, Michèle and Brigitte, followed.

Unlike most French children, Yves and his sisters were not directly affected by World War II, as their father was not called up and Algeria was far enough away from mainland France that it was spared the worst of its defeat and occupation.^[4]. Yves was severely bullied while at school; he once told a reporter, "Whenever they picked on me, I'd say to myself, 'One day I'll be famous'. That was my way of getting back at them."^[4] He found a refuge at home, where his parents allowed him to use an empty room to act out performances of plays by Molière and Giraudoux for his family. He eagerly devoured the theatre reviews in the French magazine Vogue, and became fascinated not just by the descriptions of the plays but also by the descriptions of the costumes. This led him to study the fashion sections of Vogue as well, and soon he was as interested in fashion design as he was in the theatre.

Young designer

In 1953, Yves submitted three sketches to a contest for young fashion designers organized by the International Wool Secretariat. He won third prize and was invited to attend the awards ceremony in Paris in December of that year. While he and his mother were in Paris, they met Michel de Brunhoff, editor-in-chief of the Paris edition of Vogue magazine. de Brunhoff, a kindly man who enjoyed encouraging new talent, was impressed by the sketches Yves brought with him and suggested he eventually consider a course of study at the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture, the council which regulated the haute couture industry and provided training to its employees. Yves followed his advice and, leaving Oran for Paris after graduation, began his studies at the Chambre Syndicale, but he found the syllabus frustrating and left after a few months.

Later that same year, Yves entered the International Wool Secretariat competition again and won, beating out his friend Fernando Sanchez and a young German student named Karl Lagerfeld.^[4] Shortly after his win, he brought a number of sketches to de Brunhoff who recognized in them close similarities to sketches he had been shown that morning by Christian Dior, a leading haute couturier. Knowing that Dior had created the sketches that morning and that the young man could not have seen them, de Brunhoff sent him to Dior, who hired him on the spot.

Although Dior recognized his talent immediately, Yves spent his first year at the House of Dior on mundane tasks, such as decorating the studio and designing accessories. Eventually, however, he was allowed to submit sketches for the couture collection; with every passing season, more of his sketches were accepted by Dior. In August 1957, Dior met with Yves's mother to tell her that he had chosen Yves to succeed him as designer. His mother later said that she had been confused by the remark, as Dior was only 52 years old at the time. Both she and her son were surprised when in October of that year Dior died at a health spa in northern Italy of a massive heart attack.^[4]

Yves found himself at the age of 21 the head designer of the House of Dior. His Spring 1958 collection almost certainly saved the House from financial ruin; the straight line of his creations, a softer version of Dior's New Look, catapulted him to international stardom with what would later be known as the 'trapeze dress', which included dresses with a narrow shoulder and flared gently at the bottom. It was at this time that he shortened his surname to "Saint Laurent", as the international press found his hyphenated triple name difficult to spell.

His Fall 1958 collection was not greeted with the same level of approval as his first collection had been, and later collections for the House of Dior featuring hobble skirts and beatnik fashions were savaged by the press. In 1960 Saint Laurent found himself conscripted to serve in the French Army during the Algerian War of Independence. Alice Rawsthorn writes that there was speculation at the time that Marcel Boussac, the owner of the House of Dior and a powerful press baron, had put pressure on the government not to conscript Saint Laurent in 1958 and 1959, but reversed course and asked that the designer be conscripted after the disastrous 1960 season so that he could be replaced.

Conscription, illness, and independence

Saint Laurent lasted twenty days in the military before the stress of hazing by fellow soldiers led him to be sent to a military hospital, where he received the news that he had been fired by Dior. This merely added fuel to the fire, and he ended up in Val-de-Grâce, a French mental hospital, where he was given large doses of sedatives and other psychoactive drugs and subjected to electroshock therapy.^[5] Saint Laurent himself traced the history of both his mental problems and his drug addictions to this time in hospital.^[4]

After his release from the hospital in November 1960, Saint Laurent sued Dior for breach of contract and won. After a period of convalescence Saint Laurent and his lover, industrialist Pierre Bergé, started their own fashion house with funding from Atlanta millionaire J. Mack Robinson.[1] The couple split romantically in 1976 but remained business partners.^[6] During the 1960s and 1970s, the firm popularized fashion trends such as the beatnik look, safari jackets for men and women, tight pants and tall, thigh-high boots, including the creation of arguably the most famous classic tuxedo suit for women in 1966, the Le Smoking suit. He also started mainstreaming the idea of wearing silhouettes from the 1920s, '30s and '40s. He was the first French haute couturier to come out with a full pret-a-porter (ready-to-wear) line; although Alicia Drake credits this move with Saint Laurent's wish to democratize fashion,^[7] others point out that other couture houses were preparing pret-a-porter lines at the same time; the House of Yves Saint Laurent merely announced its line first. The first of the company's Rive Gauche stores, which sold the pret-a-porter line, opened on the Rue de Tournon in Paris on 26 September 1966. The opening was attended by Yves Saint Laurent, and the first customer was Catherine Deneuve.^[4]

He was also the first designer to use black models in his runway shows,^[8] and one of the first to use Asian and Pacific Islander models.

Many of his collections were received rapturously by both his fans and the press, such as the Fall 1965 collection of Piet Mondrian shift dresses and the Spring 1967 collection that introduced Le Smoking tailored tuxedo suit. Other collections raised great controversy, such as his Spring 1971 collection which was inspired by 1940s fashion. Some felt it romanticized the German Occupation (one Saint Laurent did not himself live through), while others felt it brought back the ugly utilitarianism of the time. The French newspaper France-Soir called the Spring 1971 collection "Une Grande Farce!".^[4]

During the 1960s and 1970s Saint Laurent was considered one of Paris's "jet set".^[7] He was often seen at clubs in France and New York such as Regine's and Studio 54, and was known to be both a heavy drinker and a frequent user of cocaine.^[4] When he was not actively supervising the preparation of a collection, though, he spent time at his second home in Marrakech, Morocco. In the late 1970s he also bought a home in Normandy, near the vacation home Marcel Proust visited as a child and wrote about in Remembrance of Things Past.

The pret-a-porter line became extremely popular with the public (if not with the critics), eventually earning many times more for Saint Laurent and Bergé than the haute couture line. However, Saint Laurent, whose health had been precarious for years, became erratic under the pressure of designing two haute couture and two pret-a-porter collections every year, turning more and more to alcohol and drugs. At some shows he could barely walk down the runway at the end of the show, having to be supported by models. After a disastrous 1987 pret-a-porter show in New York City which featured $100,000 jeweled casual jackets only days after the "Black Monday" stock market crash, he turned over the responsibility of the pret-a-porter line to his assistants. Although the line remained popular with his fans, it was soon dismissed as "boring" by the press.^[4]

Later life and death

In 1983, Saint Laurent became the first living fashion designer to be honored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art with a solo exhibition. In 2001, he was awarded the rank of Commander of the Légion d'Honneur by French president Jacques Chirac. He retired in 2002 and became increasingly reclusive, living at his homes in Normandy and Morocco with his pet French Bulldog Moujik.

He also created a foundation with Pierre Bergé in Paris to trace the history of the house of YSL, complete with 15,000 objects and 5,000 pieces of clothing.

Among his muses were Loulou de la Falaise, the daughter of a French marquis and an Anglo-Irish fashion model; Betty Catroux, the half-Brazilian daughter of an American diplomat and wife of a French decorator; Talitha Pol-Getty, who died of drug overdose in 1971; Catherine Deneuve, the French actress; Nicole Dorier, a top model of the House between 1978 and 1983 when she became one of the master's assistants dedicated to organizing his runway shows and then the "memory" of his house when it became a museum, the Guinean-born Senegalese supermodel Katoucha Niane, the daughter of writer Djibril Tamsir Niane; and supermodel Laetitia Casta, who was the bride in his shows from 1997 until 2002.

He died on 1 June 2008 of brain cancer at his residence in Paris.^[9] According to The New York Times,^[10] a few days before he died, Saint Laurent and Bergé were joined in a same-sex civil union known as a "civil pact of solidarity" in France. He was also survived by his mother and sisters; his father had died in 1988.

Saint Laurent's body was cremated and his ashes were scattered in Marrakech, Morocco in the Majorelle Garden, a botanical garden that he often visited to find influence and refuge. ^[11] His partner Bergé said during the funeral service: “But I also know that I will never forget what I owe you, and that one day I will join you under the Moroccan palms.” His funeral was attended by Empress Farah Pahlavi, Madame Chirac, French President and his wife.^[12]

Sale of art collection

In February 2009, an auction of 733 items was held by Christie's at the Grand Palais, ranging from paintings by Picasso to ancient Egyptian sculptures. Saint Laurent and Bergé began collecting art in the 1950s, with Bergé commenting that the decision to sell the collection was taken because without Saint Laurent "it has lost the greater part of its significance," with the a proceeds proposed to being used to create a new foundation for AIDS research.

Before the sale commenced, the Chinese government tried to stop the sale of two 18th Century bronze Chinese zodiac sculptures, which were stolen from the Old Summer Palace by the French and British Forces during invasion of China in 1860. A French judge dismissed the claim. The sculptures - a rabbit's head and a rat's head - both sold for €15,745,000 ($20,117,073)^[13], but it later transpired that the bid had been placed by Cai Mingchao, a representative of China's National Treasures Fund who are seeking to repatriate the items back to China; he claims that he will not pay for them.^[14]

On the first day of the sale, Henri Matisse's work Cuckoos on a blue and pink carpet broke the previous world record set in 2007 for a Matisse work, selling for 32m Euros. Auctioneers said the collection could fetch up to 300m euros (£260m).^[15]

References

1. ^ Yves Saint Laurent dies
2. ^ livenews
3. ^ "Obituary: Yves Saint Laurent". The Daily Telegraph (UK newspaper) (Barclay brothers). 3 June 2008. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/2063264/Yves-Saint-Laurent.html. Retrieved 2 August 2008. 
4. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Alice Rawsthorn. Yves Saint Laurent: A Biography. New York: Nan A. Talese, 1996. ISBN 0-385-47645-0
5. ^ The Biography Channel - Yves Saint Laurent Biography
6. ^ Cole, Shaun (2002), "Saint Laurent, Yves", glbtq.com, http://www.glbtq.com/arts/saintlaurent_y.html, retrieved 25 August 2007 .
7. ^ ^{a b} Alicia Drake. The Beautiful Fall: Lagerfeld, Saint Laurent, and Glorious Excess in 1970s Paris. Little, Brown and Company, 2006. p.49.
8. ^ Iman hits back at a world where the fashion is always for white The Independent (London) | Find Articles at BNET.com
9. ^ "Tributes for Yves Saint Laurent". BBC News. 2 June 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7431715.stm. Retrieved 2 June 2008. 
10. ^ New York Times
11. ^ ""Yves Saint Laurent's Ashes Scattered In Marrakesh"". Reuters. 12 June 2008. http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20080612/world-news/yves-saint-laurents-ashes-scattered-in-marrakesh. Retrieved 24 March 2009. 
12. ^ http://www.farahpahlavi.org/YVES.html
13. ^ http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&intObjectID=5157530&sid=1480c942-875b-4d8f-8871-7ef2026f6109
14. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7918128.stm
15. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7905364.stm

Bibliography

• Caroline Rennolds Milbank (1985) "Couture: The Great Fashion Designers" Thames & Hudson.
• Pierre Bergé (1997). Yves Saint Laurent: The Universe of Fashion. Rizzoli. ISBN 0-7893-0067-2
• Alice Rawsthorn (1996). Yves Saint Laurent Nan A. Talese. ISBN 0-385-47645-0
• Biography of Yves Saint Laurent
• Yves Saint Laurent shuts its doors — BBC World 31 October 2002
• All About Yves — Jim LeherJanuary 16]] 2002 By Jessica Moore
• Yves Saint Laurent announces retirement — CNN 7 January 2002
• All About Yves: As the incomparable Yves Saint Laurent celebrates his 40th anniversary as a couturier, the world salutes his genius. — Julie K.L. Dam, Time magazine, 3 August 1998.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Yves Saint Laurent

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Yves Saint Laurent

• Official Yves Saint Laurent Web Site
• Tribute to YSL
• Yves Saint Laurent - Biography
• Pierre Bergé Yves Saint Laurent Foundation
• Yves Saint Laurent's profile on the FMD
• Timeline of Accomplishments
• Tribute article Yves Saint Laurent has died
• New York Times obituary
• bbc.co.uk, Obituary: Yves Saint Laurent
• bbc.co.uk, In pictures: Yves Saint Laurent
• The Guardian: retrospective article
• "Interactive timeline of couture houses and couturier biographies". Victoria and Albert Museum. http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1486_couture/explore.php. 
• The intriguing life of Yves Saint Laurent

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Persondata
NAME	Saint-Laurent, Yves
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Mathieu-Saint-Laurent, Yves Henri Donat
SHORT DESCRIPTION	fashion designer
DATE OF BIRTH	1 August 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH	Oran, Algeria
DATE OF DEATH	1 June 2008
PLACE OF DEATH	Paris, France

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