Yves Saint Laurent, in full Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint Laurent, (born August 1, 1936, in Oran, Algeria—died June 1, 2008, in Paris, France) was a French fashion designer noted for his popularization of women’s trousers for all occasions.
After completing his secondary education in Oran, Algeria, Saint Laurent left for Paris to pursue a career in designing theatrical costumes and women’s fashion.
When a Vogue magazine executive showed Christian Dior some of Saint Laurent’s sketches, he was hired immediately as Dior’s assistant. He was 17 years old at the time.
As Dior’s protégé, Saint Laurent was named head of the House of Dior after Dior’s sudden death in 1957.
Following the “little-girl” look and the A-line silhouette, he introduced more sophisticated, longer skirts and, in 1959, drastically shortened skirts. In 1960 he introduced the chic beatnik look of turtle necks and black leather jackets edged with fur.
Two years later the House of Dior took advantage of Saint Laurent's military call-up to have their boy wonder replaced. Exiled from his Avenue Montaigne paradise, he fell apart and was admitted to a mental hospital a bare three weeks after reporting for duty: a has-been at 24.
In 1962 Saint Laurent opened his own fashion house and quickly emerged as one of the most influential designers in Paris. He popularized trousers for women for both city and country wear.
In 1983 the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City held a retrospective of Saint Laurent’s designs. He sold the ready-to-wear business to Gucci for some $1 billion in 1999 and shut down the couture house when he retired in 2002.
Saint Laurent continued designing until 2002 – every show remorselessly measured against his past hits, and every final bow was accompanied by the suspense of waiting to see whether he'd manage the short walk to the end of the runway.
In 2007 Saint Laurent was made a grand officer of the Legion of Honour. Two years later the art collection he had assembled with his partner, Pierre Bergé, was auctioned in Paris for more than $260 million, a record price for a private art collection.
Saint Laurent himself died of brain cancer in 2008; four years later Hedi Slimane – first hired as a menswear designer back in 1996 – returned to the house and immediately shortened the label's name to Saint Laurent.
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