Yves Saint Laurent: Adieu, fashion genius

The current Yves Saint Laurent collections

YSL (as his official abbreviation), was one of the designers who made Paris the world city of fashion. Saint Laurent was only 71 years old - a real loss, not just for the fashion world. His death came as a surprise, though it had long been known how seriously ill he was. Saint Laurent's fashion designs became iconic, and many designs inspired by him are still a classic in our cabinets. It was he who revolutionized fashion with his collections and gave us women a basic wardrobe: clothes that exude strength and power and that can make a career with women. His pants trains, copied from men, had broad shoulders and, combined with high-heels, stylized to the weapon of the modern woman.



Yves Saint Laurent

But other Saint Laurent designs are still part of the style repertoire of a perfectly dressed woman: the Shirt Dress (1967), the Caban jacket (1962), the Trenchcoat, the Safari style (1968) and of course the Tuxedo for women!

Saint Laurent showed classics but could also provoke. He already showed with Mary Quant 1958 the first miniskirts and 1966 (!) the first Transparent look, At the time a scandal - the first naked breasts on the catwalk! His longtime business partner Pierre Bergé put it in a nutshell: just as Chanel gave the women freedom in the first half of the 20th century, Saint Laurent gave them power in the second given.



Saint Laurent was born on 1 August 1936 in Oran, Algeria. Already during his school days he designed the stage design and costumes for theater performances. At the age of 17, he goes to Paris and trains as a fashion illustrator. During his apprenticeship, he participates in a competition organized by the Parisian Woll Secretariat and asserts himself by designing a cocktail dress - among other things against his future competitor Karl Lagerfeld, Christian Dior becomes aware of him through this competition and takes over an assistant position in the fashion house Christian Dior, When Dior dies in 1957, Yves Saint Laurent, at the age of 22, takes over the artistic direction of the house, saving Dior from financial ruin.

In 1960, however, his career experiences a sudden interruption: Saint Laurent is called up for military service. Although he is because of his strong depression dismissed from the army after a few months, but his job at Dior is gone. Meanwhile, chief designer Marc Bohan leads the business here.

But Saint Laurent fights back. He sued the fashion house Dior for damages - and wins. With the money that is finally awarded to him, he opened his own fashion house in 1962 - the "Société Yves Saint Laurent" (YSL). He is assisted by marketing expert Pierre Bergé, who has been his partner for many years.

A perfect liaison, as it turns out: Together they both create a wide-ranging enterprise. Saint Laurent brings "Rive Gauche" as the first couturier in 1966 Prêt-à-Porter Fashion on the market - "off-the-peg fashion", fashion that we only know today.

Shy, timid, introverted - these are the qualities that Saint Laurent is constantly describing. The obligatory appearance at the end of the Defile is visibly never easy for him.

At his official farewell in 2002, he also openly addresses the dark side of his life. He had in his life "Fear and terrible loneliness known, the wrong friends, Tranquilizers and drugs, the prison of depression and the sanatorium ".

The house YSL continues to exist very successfully: After a short interlude of star designers Alber Elbaz and Tom Ford, Stefano Pilati has been the artistic director since 2004.



What will stay? YSL as an innovative designer label has also established itself with a new creative designer. The hip accessory and cosmetics line will continue as well as the fragrances Opium and Rive Gauche - Yves Saint Laurent's ingenious creative performance will last for generations to come. He has actually become a fashion icon.

The Innovative Style of Yves St. Laurent (March 2024).



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