Yves Saint Laurent – An Obituary

Yves Saint Laurent

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Genius and visionary are labels quite often liberally applied to fashion designers and very rarely warranted but in the case of Yves Saint Laurent, they scarcely seem to do him justice.

So relevant, modern and still widely copied are Saint Laurent's designs that it's easy to forget how revolutionary they were when they appeared in the late 1950s, when he took over as creative director at Christian Dior at just 21 years old. His first collection for Dior featured the iconic "Trapeze" dress.

Saint Laurent (along with his great rival and contemporary Karl Lagerfeld – they were both discovered in the same design competition held by the International Wool Secretariat in 1954) shook up the Paris fashion scene, which until his arrival comprised of impenetrable couture salons servicing a privileged few. He is credited with inventing "ready to wear" and starting the trend for dramatic, and in his case lengthy, catwalk shows.

He was also lauded as a great liberator of women and was the first to put women in trousers – or more importantly trousers that made them look feminine - for workwear and formalwear, most famously with his trademark women's tuxedo "Le Smoking". Many early adopters of the look, including New York socialite Nan Kempner, recounted stories of being turned away from restaurants and hotels for offending social sensibilities by not wearing skirts or dresses. (Kempner's response was to remove the trousers and walk in wearing only the jacket as a mini-dress – a look emulated on the autumn 07 YSL catwalk by current creative director Stefano Pilati).

Saint Laurent, with the backing of his then lover and life-long business partner, Pierre Berge established his own fashon house in 1962, followed by his ready-to-wear line Rive Gauche in 1966. Iconic pieces appeared year in year out, such as the pea coat (1962), Le Smoking (1966) and the jumpsuit (1968).

But while he began as a revolutionary Saint Laurent actually believed in evolution in fashion and said that a woman shouldn't change her wardrobe every six months but instead add more timeless pieces to it.

He had many muses and high profile female fans, such as Catherine Deneuve, Loulou de la Falaise, Paloma Picasso and Bianca Jagger (who both married in YSL white tuxes) and Betty Catroux, who was with him when he died. But it was his mother who was said to have inspired his aesthetic the most.

The ultimate honour was bestowed on Saint Laurent in 1983 at the age of just 47 when he was recognised with a retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the first ever to be held for a living designer. The French government awarded him the Legion d'Honneur two years later.

In 1998 he showed his last ready-to-wear collection before Rive Gauche was sold to Gucci Group. The then creative director Tom Ford took over the design and Saint Laurent was apparently displeased with his sexing up of the YSL image and made several veiled swipes at his efforts from the sidelines, once quipping, "the poor guy does what he can". Since 2005 the collection has been designed by former Miuccia Prada protégé Stefano Pilati who restored a more intellectual and elegant feel, which apparently met with the master's approval.

Tortured genius: Yves Saint Laurent

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Saint Laurent continued to present a couture collection until 2002 when he bid an emotional farewell to the industry at the end of his final catwalk show flanked by a swarm of the world's most beautiful women all wearing Le Smoking, including Claudia Schiffer, Laetitia Casta and Catherine Deneuve. Saint Laurent's fragile appearance added to the poignancy of the occasion. He had battled emotional and mental health problems throughout his life, leading Berge to claim he had been "born with a nervous breakdown".

Saint Laurent was seemingly tortured by the greatness of his brain and in the end it was his brain that destroyed him. He died in Paris of a brain tumour on June 1 with his most loyal supporters Berge and Catroux by his side. His funeral takes place on Thursday.

Saint Laurent: a timeline
1936 – born in Oran, Algiers
1954 – wins an International Wool Secretariat design award for dress design (Karl Lagerfeld wins the prize for coat design) and is hired by Christian Dior
1957 – assumes role of creative director at Christian Dior following the designer's death
1962 – establishes his own label with the backing of lifelong business partner and protector Pierre Berge
1966 – launches his Rive Gauche ready-to-wear line; his trademark Le Smoking first appears
1977 – launches his iconic Opium perfume
1983 – is recognised in a retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art; the first ever for a living designer
1985 – awarded the French Legion d'Honneur
1998 – produces his last Rive Gauche collection before its sale to Gucci in 1999
2002 – produces his last ever couture collection
2008 – dies June 1, Paris