Yves Mathieu Saint-Laurent was born in 1936, in Oran, Algeria
Firstborn son of Charles Mathieu Y Lucienne Andrée Saint-LaurentShe grew up with her two sisters with all the comforts of a good family settled in French Algeria.
His father, a successful lawyer, always wanted him to Yves He studied law and he attended a school in Oran where he received an education based on an iron discipline that affected him and influenced his later life.
He always felt very close to his mother, Lucienne, a beautiful and elegant woman who fascinated Yves with his constant wardrobe changes. She immediately understood the sensitive boy and when she saw that the classmates laughed at her son because he dressed the dolls of his sisters and the puppets of the school theater, she decided to look for a learning center for dressmaking and pattern making in Paris where she could develop all his talent.
This was a period of training and also of doubts between deciding on theater or fashion, in which the adolescent Saint-Laurent devoured Vogue and other specialized magazines, while reading Marcel proust, your favorite author.
Finally, spurred on by his mother, he decided to make the leap, and the provincial Yves He went to live alone in Paris, at the age of 17, ready to learn everything about haute couture. And he soon showed that his efforts were serious.
He showed his designs to Michel de Brunhoff, director of Vogue, who was pleased and decided to publish them in his magazine. He followed the advice of By Brunhoff and she enrolled in a haute couture school, but found it boring and soon after she stopped attending classes.
The impatient apprentice submitted to a competition a sketch for a cocktail dress and won the first prize, a fact that served to make him known in Parisian society.
The young man Saint-Laurent was presented to Christian dior for By Brunhoff and he immediately surrendered to his talent.
In 1954 he began to work under the orders of the great creator, of whom he would become his right hand until his death in 1957.
For three years, he collaborated closely with Dior, who often criticized his extravagant proposals, but at the same time admired the creative talent of his young disciple, whom he used to call “my prince”.
The master’s death affected the young disciple, who became his natural heir. Once he was appointed art director of the firm, he launched his first collection, which he presented under the name of Trapeze and with which he obtained a resounding success.
Among the public that attended that parade was Pierre Berge, A friend of Dior and a regular in the Parisian fashion circle, who over time became a partner, friend and lover of Yves.
In 1960 he could no longer avoid the obligations of military service and left his post at the head of Dior because he was called up by the French army.
Within a few months, he could not bear the harshness of the military lifestyle and suffered his first major depression, for which he had to be admitted to a military psychiatric hospital.
His friend Bergé used his influences and shortly after he managed to get let out of there.
Meanwhile, the house Dior appointed the assistant director of Yves, Marc bohan, which greatly upset the couturier, who decided to sue the company.
Helped by his inseparable friend Berge, Saint-Laurent He filed a lawsuit and fought until he received compensation from the company for moral damages and, with that money and that of Mack robinson, an American businessman interested in fashion, created his own sewing house.
In 1962 he presented a first collection under his name, and four years later he launched the tuxedo, which over time became a classic. With this garment and the rest of his creations, he became the pioneer of a more democratic, fast and affordable fashion, designed for the new generations.
In the mid-1960s she began to work on collections designed for the mature and sophisticated woman.
The actress Elizabeth taylor he wore at his wedding with Richard Burton a model of Saint-Laurent, and other famous ones, like Marlene dietrich, Farah Diba, the Duchess of Windsor, Sophia loren or Catherine DeneuveThey also wore their dresses on occasion.
With the complicity of her best friend, Betty catroux, Saint-Laurent created an androgynous style with which he tried to find the equivalent of the man’s suit for women.
In 1970 his parades stood out for the presentation of the feminine jacket and dresses and blouses that left the back uncovered. But the fact that his collection “1940’s style” got very bad reviews was reason enough for Yves decided to abandon fashion for the next two years.
At the beginning of the 70’s he was a model for his collection Rive Gauche of male ready-to-wear, and came to pose naked before the camera of Jean-Loup Sieff for its perfume, something unusual in those times.
With the collaboration of its two best designers, Loulou de La Falaise Y Anne-Marie MuñozIn 1974 the couturier reappeared with a collection dedicated to the Second Empire and again he heard applause.
That year the magazine Time called it “fashion king“and dedicated a cover to it.
He also entered hospitals several times, from which he left to relapse again, and not even the support of his friend Pierre He was able to prevent him from ending up more and more alone in his flat in Paris, or taking refuge in the mansion that had been built in Marrakech.
Sick of this situation Berge abandoned it in 1976.
In 1983, in the Metropolitan Museum from New York, an exhibition dedicated to his creations was opened.
Two years later he was the Museum of Fine Arts from Beijing who did the same, and in 1986 the Fashion Museum de Paris presented a retrospective of the couturier from 1958.
The success of Saint-Laurent It was such that at the end of the 80’s the company created more than twenty years ago already had more than 10,000 people working in 200 countries and had a turnover of around 360 million euros.
Although he had already been distinguished with the award Oscar Neiman Marcus Sewing (Dallas, 1958), or the Oscar Harper’s Bazaar (1966), in the mid-eighties public recognition came to his work and he received the Legion of Honor from the hands of the French president François Mitterrand. However, Yves Saint-Laurent He continued to suffer from episodes of insecurity and fear of failure led him to consume tranquilizers and sleeping pills.
In the 90’s he spent long periods in his palace in Marrakech, where he locked himself up for weeks to create his collections.
In Paris, on July 12, 1998, on the occasion of the end of the Soccer World Cup, 300 models paraded in the Saint Denis Stadium in a retrospective of forty years of creation of the couturier. And that same year he created what would be his last ready-to-wear line.
The American Designer Albert elbaz was chosen by the teacher to succeed him, but the following year the purchase of most of his company by the Pinault Group disrupted their plans.
Tom ford he took care of everything except haute couture, which he remained in charge of the French couturier for a few more years.
After his retirement in 2002, Yves Saint-Laurent he remains an enigma, a millionaire anarchist capable of declaring: “My only regret is that I did not invent jeans.”
If something stands out in Yves Saint-LaurentIn addition to his creative genius, he is a transgressive and contradictory character, a true fashion legend in his own right, author of the pantsuit, the Saharan, the shorts and many other successes.
From the first transparencies to the black scandal, the itinerary of this couturier, who was the first to break the rules of haute couture, has not ceased to represent a hymn to women and fashion, always seeking a balance between comfort and the fantasy.
Sick and tired, he retired knowing that he had advanced haute couture and created clothing for contemporary women.
Finally, in 2008, Yves Saint-Laurent He passed away at 71 years of age, after a long illness.