Yves Saint Laurent

Yves Saint Laurent was born in Oran, Algeria, into a wealthy French family. At his Catholic school he was bullied and beaten for being effeminate. He escaped into drawing, designing costumes for miniature theatres and paper dolls. At 17 he won a prize in a design competition in Paris, and in 1955 Christian Dior hired him on the spot.

When Dior died suddenly in 1957, Saint Laurent, aged 21, became head designer of the most famous fashion house in the world. His first “Trapeze” collection made him a star. In 1958 he met Pierre Bergé, who became his partner in life and in business. After Saint Laurent was drafted into the French army during the Algerian War and suffered a breakdown, Dior replaced him; with Bergé he founded his own house in 1961.

Saint Laurent changed how women dressed. He put them in trouser suits, safari jackets, pea coats and, in 1966, “Le Smoking”, the tuxedo for women. He was the first major couturier to launch a ready-to-wear line, “Rive Gauche”, and one of the first to use Black models on the runway. In 1983 he became the first living designer to have a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Saint Laurent and Bergé separated as a couple in 1976 but remained close and ran the company together until he retired in 2002. Saint Laurent suffered from depression and addiction for much of his life. He died in Paris in 2008, aged 71. Shortly before his death he and Bergé entered into a civil partnership.