Yves Saint Laurent
Yves Saint Laurent was born in Oran, Algeria in 1936 and moved to Paris at seventeen, winning a design competition that brought him to the attention of Christian Dior. When Dior died suddenly in 1957, Saint Laurent was named head designer of the house at twenty-one, producing his debut Trapèze line to immediate critical success. The Trapèze dresses flared gently from the shoulder, moving away from the structured New Look silhouette that had defined the house under Dior. He founded his own house with his partner Pierre Bergé in 1961. Over the next four decades he produced a body of work that reshaped the modern wardrobe: Le Smoking, the women's tuxedo suit he popularised in 1966 and worn by Bianca Jagger, Catherine Deneuve and Liza Minnelli; the Mondrian collection of the same year, with its geometric colour-blocked shifts drawn directly from Piet Mondrian's paintings; the safari jacket; the sheer blouse; the jumpsuit; and a series of collections drawing on Chinese dress, Pop Art and the Ballets Russes. In 1966 he launched Rive Gauche, his ready-to-wear line, making him one of the first couturiers to democratise access to his designs. His muses included Loulou de La Falaise, Betty Catroux, Talitha Pol-Getty and Catherine Deneuve. He retired in 2002 and died in Paris in June 2008. The house has since been led by Tom Ford, Stefano Pilati, Hedi Slimane, who rebranded the ready-to-wear line as Saint Laurent Paris in 2012, and Anthony Vaccarello, who has held the position since 2016. The Musée Yves Saint Laurent, opened in Paris and Marrakesh in 2017, holds the most comprehensive archive of his work.
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