Yves Saint Laurent

“Why Yves Saint Laurent? Because he is a genius, because he knows everything about women.”

Diana Vreeland

In summer 1977 the novelist Anthony Burgess made a special trip to Paris from his Monte Carlo home to interview Yves Saint Laurent for the New York Times magazine. Once the interview was over, Burgess, who was fascinated by palmistry, asked Saint Laurent to show him his hands. Most people’s left and right palms have a different pattern, but this time Burgess saw something truly unique – Yves’s palms were virtually identical. “His career had been worked out in the stars,” Burgess wrote later.

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Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent was born on 1 August 1935 at the Jarsaillon Clinic in Oran, the second largest city of Algeria. From the very first day, Yves became the darling of the family, especially his mother whose love for her son “has always been something very strong and very special”. His childhood was divided into two world: the blissful and secure one at home where he would spend hours sketching, writing and staging performances in his toy theatre and the world of abuse and bulling that existed at school. No matter how bad things were for him, the boy chose not to tell his parents about the horrors of school. Instead he’d rush home to yet again be absorbed in his art and imaginary world of beauty, theatre and fashion that came alive from the pages of Vogue and his own drawings.

When he was 17, Yves saw a competition for young fashion designers in Paris-Match organised by the Wool Secretariat and decided to take part. The winner would get a chance to work for one of the competition judges including Christian Dior and Pierre Balmain. A letter the came a few weeks later brought the most wonderful news: Yves’s sketches of a coat, a dress and a suit won the 3rd prize and he was invited to Paris for an award ceremony. Although Paris saw Saint Laurent as an outsider, he was incredibly happy to be there and discover the city of lights. Before leaving for Oran, Yves was introduced to Michel de Brunhoff, editor-in-chief of Paris Vogue who saw great potential and suggested that Yves finished school and then came to Paris for one of the fashion courses.

Saint Laurent followed his advice and enrolled in the Chambre Syndicate course in September 1954. That autumn he also re-entered the International Wool Secretarial competition, won the first place and three out of seven prizes. A few months later he contacted de Brunhoff again and the two met again. As soon as Saint Laurent left, de Brunhoff picked up the phone and called Christian Dior asking him to see the young boy as soon as possible. Yves didn’t know it yet, but the sketches he showed to the editor-in-chief didn’t just make an impact on Bruhnoff, he found them astonishing. Yves’s designs looked exactly like the new “A Line” collection that Dior had prepared for his spring 1955 haute couture collection and privately showed to de Brunhoff that very morning.

Yves Mathieu-Saint-Laurent was offered a job on the spot. He was 19 years old. The job offer came from Christian Dior himself.

The world of Dior was Yves’s element. It was elegant, inviting and reminded him of the wonderful and happy times spent at home with his family. His first task was to decorate the shop, but he was quickly moved to designing accessories and then submitting sketches for the couture collection and although Dior was distant with his young employee, he recognised and respected his talent and decided to include one of Yves’s designs in his new collection. A dress was then chosen by Harper’s Bazaar and featured in “Dovima with Elephans” editorial photographed by Richard Avedon.

In 1957 Dior chose not just a few, but thirty-five of Saint Laurent’s designs. “Yves is the one who will succeed me” the designer said to his mother a few weeks before he left for Italy where he had a heart attack. 10 days after his furneral Yves Saint Laurent was made responsible for designing a new haute couture collection for the house of Dior. The collection was a triumph.

Then came September 1960. Yves Saint Laurent had to join the army for two years. The situation was so wrong in so many ways that Yves only lasted for 19 days before he was admitted to a military hospital with a nervous depression and then sent off to Val-de-Grâce, a mental hospital in southern Paris. The days at the hospital were a blur. Overdosed with tranquilisers, treated with electric shock, surrounded by manic and violent patients and isolated from his family and friend, Yves was frightened and alone. The only thought that kept him alive was his dream of getting back to Dior quarters, but Saint Laurent’s illness was too much for Dior and Yves was quickly replaced with a thirty-four-year-old Marc Bohan who didn’t posses the magic of Yves Saint Laurent, but was able to produce solid collections close to Dior’s traditions.

Eventually everyone gave up on Yves. Everyone but Piere Berge who continued fighting for Saint Laurent until one day he had him released from the hospital. After a long and much needed recovery process, the two decided to launch Yves Saint Laurent couture house.

The timing was perfect. The world was hungry for something new, young and fresh, a new designer who would become a star. Yves Saint Laurent and his perfect, exciting and impeccably made clothes were the ideal choice.

From the incredibly beautiful couture collections to ready-to-wear Rive Gauche, Yves Saint Laurent made women fall in love with his clothes over and over again. The smoking, the blouse, the trench and the pea jacket, it was all Yves Saint Laurent. The Mondrian dresses made of pieces of fabric stitched together by hand a night before the show, the Ballets Russes inspired by Bakst costumes, the Van Gogh Iris and Sunflower beaded jackets and dresses decorated with the Picasso-inspired silhouettes are unique pieces of art nobody else thought of creating before.

What truly made him different from other fashion designers was his versatility and ability to be ahead of his time and yet designing clothes that were timeless.

Fashion was his dream world, but it was also the place full of demons. The most famous designer in the world was suffering from depression and had to combat addictions. One day he grew tired of everything. In 2002 he left the world of fashion.

On 1 June 2008 Yves Saint Laurent fell asleep forever. His ashes were scattered in Majorelle Garden in Morocco, a place where he could always find peace and inspiration.

“Yves Saint Laurent invented everything, revisited everything, transformed everything to the service of a passion, to let woman shine and to free her beauty and mystery”

Francois Pinault

Photo sources: Harper’s Bazaar US 1955, Yves Saint Laurent Fall 1987