RIP to YSL...the death of an ICON

Stars turn out for YSL funeral

06/06/2008

The funeral of the legendary designer Yves Saint Laurent took place at the Saint-Roch church on the Rue Saint-Honore in Paris yesterday afternoon.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy and his former model wife Carla Bruni led a group of mourners at the invitation-only service that included Saint Laurent's companion Pierre Berge, Catherine Deneuve, John Galliano, Vivienne Westwood, John Paul Gaultier, Valentino and Claudia Schiffer.

Sarkozy said: "One of the greatest names of fashion has disappeared, the first to elevate haute couture to the rank of art. He was convinced that beauty was a luxury that every man and woman needed."

Saint-Laurent, who died of a brain tumour at the age of 71, will have his ashes scattered in the country of his birth, Morocco.

"He spent much of his life in Morocco. He will stay there in a country that influenced and marked him greatly," Berge confirmed to AFP.

"He will end up in the Maghreb, where he was born."


Yves Saint Laurent

The son of an insurance company president, Yves Saint Laurent was born in Oran, Algeria. He inherited his fashion sense from his mother and his mothers friends. He studied first at the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture, but felt frustrated by the syllabus so left after a few months. Saint Laurent left home at the age of 17 to work for the French designer Christian Dior. Following Dior's death in 1957, Yves, at the age of 21, was put in charge of the effort of saving the Dior house from financial ruin.

Shortly after this success, he was conscripted to serve in the French Army during the Algerian War of Independence. After 20 days, the stress of being hazed by fellow soldiers led the fragile Saint Laurent to be institutionalized in a French mental hospital, where he underwent psychiatric treatment, including electroshock therapy, for a nervous breakdown.[3]

In 1962, in the wake of his nervous breakdown, Saint Laurent was released from Dior and he and his lover, Pierre Bergé, started their own fashion house with funding from Atlanta millionaire J. Mack Robinson. The couple split romantically in 1976 but remained business partners. During the 1960s and 1970s, the firm popularized fashion trends such as the beatnik look, safari jackets for men and women, tight pants and tall, thigh-high boots, including the creation of arguably the most famous classic tuxedo suit for women in 1966, Le Smoking suit. He also started mainstreaming the idea of wearing silhouettes from the 1920s, '30s and '40s. He was the first, in 1966, to popularize ready-to-wear in an attempt to democratize fashion, with Rive Gauche and the boutique of the same name. He was also the first designer to use black models in his runway shows.


I adore Yves. I was introduced to his collections by Cordell. He wore the YSL cologne. I have always had such great respect for this man and his vision. His was genius at its best. He was before his time and of his time at the same time. He should be paid great homage. I will be presenting a dedication show to his honor in October. Im sure he is somewhere whispering into the ears of the next great fashion designers.. and the muse for many others..