His revolutionary Mondrian mini dress from 1965 is a core element of his fashion biography. Saint Laurent had given birth to a global brand. Ready-to-wear materialized during a period of dynamic transformation and experimentation and came to dominate the Paris fashion scene. In 1966, they opened the first YSL Rive Gauche women’s boutique in Paris - Rive Gauche is French for “left bank” - followed soon thereafter by YSL Rive Gauche for men. With Pierre Bergé, his then-lover who became his lifelong business partner and friend, the designer founded Yves Saint Laurent YSL to encompass prêt-à-porter, or ready-to-wear.
He shook the traditional couture clientele to its core with youthful silhouettes and styles like the A-line trapeze dress that hung with seeming effortlessness from the shoulders, the antithesis of the pinched waists and molded skirts that had been all the rage after the deprivations of World War II.Īfter a mandated spell in the torturous French military, Saint Laurent suffered a nervous breakdown and was dismissed by Dior in 1962. A mere slip of a youth, the 21-year-old Saint Laurent was nevertheless up to the challenge. Surprisingly soon thereafter, Dior publicly chose Saint Laurent as his successor, which sadly proved prescient when the fashion legend died unexpectedly, in 1957. Just two years later, in 1955, his remarkable sketches were shown to Christian Dior, then the world’s reigning couturier, who hired him immediately. Saint Laurent also consistently used Black models, like Mounia, Iman and Naomi Campbell, and he drew endless inspiration from different ethnicities and cultures, in no small part because of his Algerian roots.īorn to French parents in Oran, Algeria, in 1936, Saint Laurent went to Paris at age 17 to study fashion at the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture.
Many of his designs are today considered timeless classics. By blurring gender-specific design, he empowered individual style while creating a scissor-sharp fashion aesthetic of sensual ease and beauty. Using traditional menswear fabrics and designs for women, he also literally cross-dressed, giving men and women alike chic pant suits, elegant tuxedo jackets and urban safari gear. He was the first couturier to open boutiques for both men and women. Saint Laurent pioneered “cross-design” in fashion, taking inspiration from street trends to modernize haute couture. The store featured Mies van der Rohe chairs and played host to actor Catherine Deneuve during its grand opening. The inaugural Rive Gauche boutique - a modern shop in Paris’s bustling, bohemian Left Bank district - offered stylish garments and accessories that were intended to be affordable for a younger generation of fashion enthusiasts. Visionary French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent was the first to launch a ready-to-wear label, YSL Rive Gauche Prêt-à-Porter.
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