Test Your Knowledge

Yves Saint Laurent was a French fashion designer who founded his eponymous fashion label in 1962 and is regarded as one of the foremost fashion designers of the twentieth century. He is credited with having introduced the "Le Smoking" tuxedo suit for women and was known for his use of non-European cultural references and of diverse models. Saint Laurent grew up in a villa in Oran, Algeria, and liked to create intricate paper dolls, and by his early teen years, he was designing dresses for his mother and sisters. At the age of 17, Saint Laurent moved to Paris and enrolled at the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture. Michel De Brunhoff, the editor of French Vogue, introduced Saint Laurent to designer Christian Dior, a giant in the fashion world. Saint Laurent spent his first year at the House of Dior on mundane tasks, such as decorating the studio and designing accessories. Eventually, he was allowed to submit sketches for the couture collection. In 1957, Dior met with Saint Laurent's mother to tell her that he had chosen Saint Laurent to succeed him as a designer. Saint Laurent found himself at age 21 the head designer of the House of Dior. His spring 1958 collection almost certainly saved the enterprise from financial ruin. In 1960, Saint Laurent found himself conscripted to serve in the French Army during the Algerian War of Independence. After his release from the hospital in November 1960, Saint Laurent sued Dior for breach of contract and won. After a period of convalescence, he and his partner, industrialist Pierre Bergé, started their own fashion house Yves Saint Laurent YSL with funds from American millionaire J. Mack Robinson. Yves Saint Laurent brought in new changes to the fashion industry in the 60s and the 70s. The French designer opened his Pret-a-Porter House YSL Rive Gauche in 1967 where he was starting to shift his focus from Haute Couture to Ready-to-wear. Saint Laurent was considered one of Paris's "jet set". He was often seen at clubs in France and New York City, such as Regine's and Studio 54, and was known to be both a heavy drinker and a frequent user of cocaine. In 1983, Saint Laurent became the first living fashion designer to be honored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art with a solo exhibition. In 2007, he was awarded the rank of Grand officier de la Légion d'honneur by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Saint Laurent died on 1 June 2008 of brain cancer at his residence in Paris.Yves Saint Laurent: Life, Career, and Legacy

• Yves Saint Laurent was a French fashion designer who started his career at Christian Dior.
• He launched his own fashion house in 1961, where he introduced the women's tuxedo suit, safari jackets, and jumpsuits.
• Saint Laurent was the first designer to use non-white models in his runway shows.
• He retired in 2002 and died in 2008 due to brain cancer.
• Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Bergé, collected art, which was sold in an auction in 2009.
• The auction broke the previous world record for a Matisse work, realizing 342.5 million euros.
• Saint Laurent was rated as the top-earning dead celebrity in 2009 by Forbes.
• In 2010, a biographical film called "L'Amour Fou" was released, documenting Saint Laurent's life and career.
• Saint Laurent's life was also portrayed in the 2014 film "Yves Saint Laurent".
• The book "The Beautiful Fall" by Alicia Drake recounts the relationship between Saint Laurent and another fashion designer, Karl Lagerfeld.
• "Yves Saint Laurent: A Biography" by Alice Rawsthorn is a comprehensive biography of the fashion designer.
• The Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent was established in 2002 to preserve Saint Laurent's legacy and promote fashion design.