Yves Saint Laurent, dubbed “The King of Fashion,” died Sunday evening at the age of 71 in his Paris home. He has been suffering months of declining health, said his long-time partner, Pierre Berge, who was at his side.
Born Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent, in Oran, Algeria, on Aug. 1, 1936, Saint Laurent moved to Paris, aged 17, to work for Christian Dior. Following Dior’s death in 1957, he was made head of the ailing fashion house at just 21 years old.
Shortly after his success at Dior, he was enlisted to serve in the French army during the Algerian War of Independence.
After a brief but agonizing service, Saint Laurent returned to Paris in 1962 and established his own label, YSL, which was financed by Berge. He was the first designer to use black models in his runway shows.
Among his muses he left behind are 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; Catherine Deneuve, the iconic French actress; and the Guinean-born Senegalese supermodel Katoucha Niane, the daughter of writer Djibril Tamsir Niane.
One of the most influential couturiers of the last century, Saint Laurent’s best-known creation was the 1966 women’s tuxedo pant suit, “Le Smoking”, which combined traditional masculine tailoring with a feminine silhouette.
Check out Yves Saint Laurent Autobiography.
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