30 fashion designers you should know... #13

Yves Saint Laurent

Influenced by his bourgeois mother's passion for fashion, the gentle Saint Laurent soon found the world of textiles a place of refuge- during his schoolboy days from the bullying of his classmates and later from the whole world. Shortly after his seventeeth birthday he proved his talent for the first time: in 1953 he received the first prize of the International Wool Secretariat for a sketch of a cocktail dress- and only a year later Christian Dior offered him a position in his house. He worked with Dior until his death in 1957, when he was promoted to chief designer and became an overnight star with his "trapeze line". Yves Saint Laurent released fashion from padded waists, bosoms and shoulders, yet still invoked the opulence of early Dior designs. For three years the "wunderkind of the Paris fashion scene" was in charge at Dior as artistic director, until in 1960 he was drafted for militaray service in Algeria. Following a series if nervous breakdowns and electric shock treatments, Yves Saint Laurent was discharged after only two months. Despite the brevity of his absence, he was unable to return to his former position as a artistic director. Marc Bohan remained in his position as chief designer at Dior. From then on, Saint Laurent, who weighed only ninety pounds on his return, was to numb his anxieties with medications, alcohol and drugs. And yet his greatest creative period still lay ahead. Together with his partner Pierre Bergé, he founded the fashion house of Yves Saint Laurent Couture and soon afterward invented the principle of commercial prêt-à-porter. His Nude Look creations in transparent fabrics caused scandals in the sixties. The newly founded fashion house achieved its breakthrough with Op-Art fashion: simply cut shift dresses, divided into blocks with uncompromisingly strong geometry. With his confirmed success, Saint Laurent turned fashion on its head. In 2002 Saint Laurent announced his retirement from fashion, living in seclusion in Paris- up to his death in 2008.

Yves Saint Laurent