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Yves Saint Laurent Dies at 71
Jun. 1st, 2008 11:10 pmYves Saint Laurent Dies at 71
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Published: Sunday, June 01, 2008
By Mort Sheinman
http://www.wwd.com/issue/article/125371
Yves is gone.
Yves Saint Laurent, the designer considered by many to be one of the greatest in history, died in Paris late Sunday at age 71 after a long, undisclosed illness. He had been bedridden recently and friends said in the last week had been unable to eat or talk. Saint Laurent had been rarely seen over the last year, and even then he was wheelchair bound and weak.
The designer’s health had always been precarious even when, at age 22, he burst onto the scene as the sensational new designer at Christian Dior, replacing the late Monsieur Dior himself. The bespectacled, shy, soft-spoken designer quickly became an icon – and would remain so for the next five decades.
Saint Laurent’s contributions to fashion were unquestioned – even if, in later years, many of his collections were considered repetitive of his signatures. In this century, only Dior, Coco Chanel, Cristobal Balenciaga and Karl Lagerfeld, his peer and rival, were said to be on the same plateau.
So strong was Saint Laurent’s grip on the world of fashion that if he made a slight change in a hemline or a subtle shift in a waistline, the repercussions rippled around the globe. At the minimum, fashion owes him the credit for the invention of ready to wear through the launch in 1966 of his Rive Gauche collection. But there also were his iconic tuxedo suit “le smoking,” beatnik fashions, the use of safari jackets as a style statement for women and men, the Ballets Russes collection, his unparalleled sense of color combinations, the artistry of his cut, designer denim and the launch of a significant fragrance and beauty business with a designer name.
As Saint Laurent himself told WWD on the last day in his atelier in 2002, "I always served women and I did it without compromise until the end, with respect and love."
For more, check back to WWD.com and see Monday's issue of WWD.
Emailemail Printprint Savesave
Published: Sunday, June 01, 2008
By Mort Sheinman
http://www.wwd.com/issue/article/125371
Yves is gone.
Yves Saint Laurent, the designer considered by many to be one of the greatest in history, died in Paris late Sunday at age 71 after a long, undisclosed illness. He had been bedridden recently and friends said in the last week had been unable to eat or talk. Saint Laurent had been rarely seen over the last year, and even then he was wheelchair bound and weak.
The designer’s health had always been precarious even when, at age 22, he burst onto the scene as the sensational new designer at Christian Dior, replacing the late Monsieur Dior himself. The bespectacled, shy, soft-spoken designer quickly became an icon – and would remain so for the next five decades.
Saint Laurent’s contributions to fashion were unquestioned – even if, in later years, many of his collections were considered repetitive of his signatures. In this century, only Dior, Coco Chanel, Cristobal Balenciaga and Karl Lagerfeld, his peer and rival, were said to be on the same plateau.
So strong was Saint Laurent’s grip on the world of fashion that if he made a slight change in a hemline or a subtle shift in a waistline, the repercussions rippled around the globe. At the minimum, fashion owes him the credit for the invention of ready to wear through the launch in 1966 of his Rive Gauche collection. But there also were his iconic tuxedo suit “le smoking,” beatnik fashions, the use of safari jackets as a style statement for women and men, the Ballets Russes collection, his unparalleled sense of color combinations, the artistry of his cut, designer denim and the launch of a significant fragrance and beauty business with a designer name.
As Saint Laurent himself told WWD on the last day in his atelier in 2002, "I always served women and I did it without compromise until the end, with respect and love."
For more, check back to WWD.com and see Monday's issue of WWD.
