Things Know about Yves Saint Laurent

Yves Saint Laurent was born on August 1st, 1936 in Oran Algeria. He started his love for fashion from creating intricate paper dolls and designing dresses for his mother and two sisters. When Yves turned 18 he enrolled at the Chambre Syndicale de la Coutute in Paris. In 1953 Yves sent three sketches to a design contest for young designers. Soon after he submitted he received news that he had won first place. While Yves was in Paris at the awards ceremony with his mother he met the editor-in-chief of French Vogue, Michel de Brunhoff. Brunhoff recognized that the sketches Yves later submitted for the contest were similar to sketched he had seen earlier that day by Christian Dior. Yves was hired by Dior and after Dior’s death in 1957, Yves took on the Creative Director role for Dior at only 21 years old.

His first collection for the house of Dior was internationally accepted and was called “Trapeze”. His second collection brought much controversy and was not approved for the “beatnik” fashions. In 1960 Yves was conscripted to serve in the French Army during the Algerian War of Independence. After only 20 days in the military Yves was sent to check in at the military hospital, where he then received news that he had been fired by Dior. After Yves was released from the hospital, Yves and his partner, industrialist Pierre Berge started their very own fashion house. Together the fashion house popularized the beatnik look and safari jackets for both men and women. Yves made a classic tuxedo extremely popular. He was the first French couturier to come out with a pret-a-porter line. The ready to wear line was very popular and accepted internationally. Yves health was in danger from designing two ready to wear and two couture lines every year and turned to drugs and alcohol to keep him going. In 1983 Yves became the first living designer to be honored by the Metropolitan Museum. Yves soon retired in 2002 after a long and strong career. Yves passed away in his residence in Paris in June of 2008 from brain cancer.