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Yves Saint Laurent, French Fashion Designer, Dies
By Sara Gay Forden

June 2 (Bloomberg) -- Yves Saint Laurent, the French fashion prodigy at the House of Dior who redefined women's haute couture with his own label in the 1960s and influenced a generation of designers, died late yesterday. He was 71.

The designer died of a brain tumor in Paris, a spokeswoman for the Pierre Berge-Yves Saint Laurent Foundation, who declined to be named, said in a telephone interview.

During his almost 50-year career, the Algerian-born Saint Laurent liberated women with his pantsuits and simple, yet chic, silhouettes. Known for designs inspired by artists including Picasso and Mondrian as well as his creations for French actress Catherine Deneuve in the film ``Belle de Jour,'' Saint Laurent always saw himself as an advocate for women.

``Fashion isn't just to decorate women, but to reassure them, give them confidence,'' he said when he retired in January 2002, at the age of 65.

``French and world fashion has lost a genius with his passing,'' said Francois-Henri Pinault, chief executive officer of PPR SA, the world's third-largest luxury-goods company. ``Yves Saint Laurent invented, revisited and transformed everything in the name of one passion: to make a woman shine and allow her to free her beauty and mystery.''

Yves Henri Donat Mathieu Saint Laurent was born Aug. 1, 1936, in Oran, Algeria, which was a French colony at the time. A shy, reclusive youth, he began sketching clothes and arrived in Paris at the age of 17 with a solid portfolio.

First Break

Saint Laurent's first big break in fashion came in 1955, when he was introduced to French designer Christian Dior. He had moved to Paris to study fashion at the Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture after winning first prize in a competition by the International Wool Secretariat.

The first dress Saint Laurent designed for Dior was a black silk velvet column tied with a white satin bow called ``Soiree de Paris.'' The dress was made famous in a photograph by Richard Avedon for U.S. fashion magazine Harper's Bazaar that featured the dress on model Dovima posing dramatically with her arms outstretched between two circus elephants.

When Dior died of a stroke in 1957, the then-unknown Saint Laurent was appointed as head designer. He was 21 years old. Saint Laurent's first collection for Dior, known as the Trapeze collection for its loose, triangular shapes, won rave reviews from buyers and press.

Own Couture House

Because the house of Dior was responsible for almost 50 percent of French fashion exports at the time, Saint Laurent's success was deemed crucial for the French economy. Headlines and billboards around Paris the next day proclaimed that Saint Laurent had ``saved'' France.

In 1960, after a badly received collection featuring the Beat look, Saint Laurent was forced to leave Dior to do his military service, only to discover upon his return that he had been replaced. He opened his own couture house in 1961 with business partner Pierre Berge and financial backing from U.S. banker J. Mack Robinson. Saint Laurent showed the first collection under his name in 1962 to mixed reviews.

Saint Laurent was probably best known for inventing the tuxedo for women, known as ``Le Smoking,'' which he first introduced in 1966. A provocative statement at the time, Le Smoking was worn by Lauren Bacall, Betty Catroux and Loulou de la Falaise, among others.

Very Short Dress

New York socialite Nan Kempner created a scandal when she tried to wear her first Le Smoking tuxedo to dinner at Manhattan restaurant La Cote Basque in 1968. The maitre d' told her she couldn't dine in a pair of trousers and Kempner promptly dropped the pants and proceeded to dine in the jacket, which had instantly become a very short dress.

Saint Laurent ``wanted a woman to reconcile the two fundamental requirements that always guided his personal life: freedom and elegance,'' Bernard Arnault, chairman of Christian Dior SA, said today in a statement. ``His humility was the mark of his genius.''

In 1994, Saint Laurent sued U.S. designer Ralph Lauren for copying a tuxedo dress from his 1992-1993 couture collection. A French commercial court found Ralph Lauren guilty of imitating the dress and fined the U.S. designer 2.2 million francs. It also fined Berge for derogatory comments he made about Lauren in an interview with U.S. trade newspaper Women's Wear Daily.

Marrakesh Villa

Though his clothes came to be considered classics, Saint Laurent wasn't afraid to shock. In 1971, his radical '40s haute couture collection startled critics as did the advertising campaign for the first YSL men's fragrance, Pour Homme, in which he posed nude, wearing only his thick black rimmed glasses. In 1976, his Ballet Russes collection was termed ``revolutionary.''

His entourage of friends included Rudolf Nureyev, Andy Warhol, and Mick and Bianca Jagger, who married in Yves Saint Laurent designs. He and Berge shuttled between Paris and Marrakesh, where they owned a villa and where Saint Laurent liked to retreat after his fashion shows to gather new inspiration.

Saint Laurent, known for being timid and soft spoken, also battled with depression, ill health and drugs on and off throughout his career to the point that Berge was known to say his partner and friend ``was born with a nervous breakdown.'' He discussed his homosexuality and drug problems for the first time in an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro in 1991.

Men's Wear

The designer expanded his business with perfume licenses, including Opium and Champagne, and the Rive Gauche ready-to-wear collection, for which stores were also opened and men's wear was added in 1969.

Saint Laurent, whose favorite writer was Marcel Proust, became the first living designer to have an exhibit dedicated to him at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in 1983. He was awarded the French Legion of Honor in 1985 by then-President Francois Mitterrand.

Saint Laurent ``was the first to elevate haute couture to the rank of art and that gave him global influence,'' French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a statement today, AFP reported. He ``infused his label with his creative genius, elegant and refined personality'' and was ``convinced that beauty was a necessary luxury for all men and women.''

He is survived by his mother and two sisters. The funeral will take place on June 6 in Paris, Agence France Presse reported.