Yves Saint Laurent
Biografie1936 - 2008
Over de kunstenaar
Yves Saint Laurent is considered to be one of France's most important fashion designers from the twentieth century. He is best known for his ready-to-wear couture designs in the sixties. His approach to fashion differed from previous designers by wanting to design comfortable yet elegant clothing for women. He was born in Oran, French Algeria and grew up in a villa by the Mediterranean. He showed a passion for design at a young age, creating paper dolls and designing dresses for his close relatives in his teenage years.
When Yves was only seventeen years old, he applied for the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture in Paris. His designs were striking, which encouraged Michel de Brunhoff, the editor of French Vogue, to introduce the young designer to the famous Christian Dior after seeing his designs. Dior was one of Yves' great sources of inspiration. Dior would hire Saint Laurent on the spot after seeing his designs and would eventually tutor him.
After a year of ordinary and simple work at Dior, Saint-Laurent was allowed to submit sketches for the couture collection. A yearly increasing amount of his sketches would be accepted by Dior. In 1957, when Yves was only 21 years old, Dior told Saint Laurent's mother that he had chosen Saint Laurent to succeed him as a designer. Later that year, Dior died of a heart attack at age 52. At age 21, Yves Saint Laurent was the head designer of the House of Dior.
The spring collection he designed in 1958 probably saved the brand from bankruptcy. He turned out to be successful as head of design. In 1959, Farah Diba asked Saint Laurent to design her wedding dress when wedding the Shah of Iran. In 1960, Saint Laurent joined the French Army in the Algerian War of Independence. After 20 days, Yves was admitted to a hospital due to stress. He received the news that he had been fired from Dior there, which led the stress to increase. He was given multiple psychoactive drugs and sedatives and experienced electroshock therapy.
Later in his life, he suffered mental problems and coped with drug addiction, probably caused by this period in the hospital. After leaving the hospital, he founded their his fashion house, called Yves Saint Laurent, which quickly gained popularity. They popularised fashion trends such as tight trousers, safari jackets and the beatnik look in the '60s and '70s. Amongst their most striking designs fall the tuxedo suit for women in 1966, called 'Le Smoking' and the 1965 Mondrian collection. He was the first French fashion designer to create a full ready-to-wear line. Many of his collections were positively received by both his fans and the press, while other collections raised controversy, such as his spring 1971 collection, which was inspired by 1940s fashion.
Yves was often seen at numerous clubs in France and New York, such as studio 54. He was known to be a heavy drinker and a user of cocaine and to have difficulties coping with the pressure of designing four collections every year. He increasingly turned to alcohol and drugs in order to cope with the stress. He could apparently barely walk down the runway at the end of some of his shows, and is said to have been supported by his models.
After his 1987 ready-to-wear show in New York City turned out to be a huge disappointment, he turned over the responsibility of the prêt-à-porter line to his assistants. The line was still popular with his fans, but was soon put away as boring by the press. Yves was the first living fashion designer to be honoured with a solo exhibition in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1983. Saint Laurent retired in 2002 and lived at his homes in Normandy and Morocco for the rest of his life. He died of brain cancer in 2008 in Paris.
When Yves was only seventeen years old, he applied for the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture in Paris. His designs were striking, which encouraged Michel de Brunhoff, the editor of French Vogue, to introduce the young designer to the famous Christian Dior after seeing his designs. Dior was one of Yves' great sources of inspiration. Dior would hire Saint Laurent on the spot after seeing his designs and would eventually tutor him.
After a year of ordinary and simple work at Dior, Saint-Laurent was allowed to submit sketches for the couture collection. A yearly increasing amount of his sketches would be accepted by Dior. In 1957, when Yves was only 21 years old, Dior told Saint Laurent's mother that he had chosen Saint Laurent to succeed him as a designer. Later that year, Dior died of a heart attack at age 52. At age 21, Yves Saint Laurent was the head designer of the House of Dior.
The spring collection he designed in 1958 probably saved the brand from bankruptcy. He turned out to be successful as head of design. In 1959, Farah Diba asked Saint Laurent to design her wedding dress when wedding the Shah of Iran. In 1960, Saint Laurent joined the French Army in the Algerian War of Independence. After 20 days, Yves was admitted to a hospital due to stress. He received the news that he had been fired from Dior there, which led the stress to increase. He was given multiple psychoactive drugs and sedatives and experienced electroshock therapy.
Later in his life, he suffered mental problems and coped with drug addiction, probably caused by this period in the hospital. After leaving the hospital, he founded their his fashion house, called Yves Saint Laurent, which quickly gained popularity. They popularised fashion trends such as tight trousers, safari jackets and the beatnik look in the '60s and '70s. Amongst their most striking designs fall the tuxedo suit for women in 1966, called 'Le Smoking' and the 1965 Mondrian collection. He was the first French fashion designer to create a full ready-to-wear line. Many of his collections were positively received by both his fans and the press, while other collections raised controversy, such as his spring 1971 collection, which was inspired by 1940s fashion.
Yves was often seen at numerous clubs in France and New York, such as studio 54. He was known to be a heavy drinker and a user of cocaine and to have difficulties coping with the pressure of designing four collections every year. He increasingly turned to alcohol and drugs in order to cope with the stress. He could apparently barely walk down the runway at the end of some of his shows, and is said to have been supported by his models.
After his 1987 ready-to-wear show in New York City turned out to be a huge disappointment, he turned over the responsibility of the prêt-à-porter line to his assistants. The line was still popular with his fans, but was soon put away as boring by the press. Yves was the first living fashion designer to be honoured with a solo exhibition in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1983. Saint Laurent retired in 2002 and lived at his homes in Normandy and Morocco for the rest of his life. He died of brain cancer in 2008 in Paris.
