Iconic Fashion Designers Pass Away Edit
Yves Saint Laurent Dies at 71

One of the greatest fashion designers of our time, Yves Saint Laurent, has passed away at the age of 71 in Paris.

Saint Laurent revolutionized the fashion industry when he became chief designer of the House of Dior at the young age of 21. He introduced trouser suits, safari jackets and sweaters.  Saint Laurent said, “I found my style through women. That’s where its strength and vitality comes from because I draw on the body of a woman.”

President Sarkozy said Laurent had been “the first to elevate haute couture to the rank of art and that gave him global influence. Yves Saint Laurent infused his label with his creative genius, elegant and refined personality… because he was convinced that beauty was a necessary luxury for all men and all women.”

Alexandra Shulman, the editor of British Vogue, said Saint Laurent helped democratise fashion, “Before that people had small salons for rich people. Saint Laurent brought it to the people. He was young and groovy. Pop stars were hanging out with him and younger generations related to him.”

Pierre Berge, Saint Laurent’s former business and personal partner, said “he was a libertarian, an anarchist and he threw bombs at the legs of society. That’s how he transformed society and that’s how he transformed women.”

Saint Laurent was the first fashion designer who posed naked (see main picture), which later inspired the infamous world’s first frontal nudity ad for its fragrance YSL M7 (see picture below).

He will be greatly missed and forever remembered.