In January 1958, shortly after the death of Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent unveiled his first collection for Maison Dior.

“Could ‘a child of twenty-one,’ as many Parisians referred to Saint Laurent, possibly rescue the French economy by sustaining the allure of the century’s most famous couturier? It was immediately obvious that he could. The applause began as soon as his very first models strode out, wearing relaxed day dresses that hovered comfortably at the knee; slim, sensible suits; romantic ballerina-style ball gowns. Saint Laurent instantly reassured the public by blending the opulence and the brilliant tailoring of Dior’s designs with a greatly increased fluidity. In fact, the reception accorded the Trapeze, which was the name of Saint Laurent’s first collection, was even more impassioned than that of the New Look pioneered by his predecessor. One Frenchwoman, tears in her eyes, exclaimed to her neighbor, ‘My dear, France is saved. It’s Joan of Arc!’”

“Everybody was crying,” the New York Herald Tribune reported. “It was the emotional fashion binge of all time.” People gathered in the street below, cheering “Saint Lau-rent! Saint Lau-rent!”

He reworked the rules of fashion by putting women into elegant pantsuits that came to define how modern women dressed. By putting a woman in a man’s tuxedo, he changed fashion forever, in a style that was never dated. “Chanel gave liberation of the body to women,” said Pierre Berge, Laurent’s longtime business partner, “and Saint Laurent gave power to women with the men’s clothes.”

“Fashion was not only supposed to make women beautiful, but to reassure them, to give them confidence, to allow them to come to terms with themselves,” Saint-Laurent once said.

YSL is most famous for “Le Smoking” tuxedo jacket, see-through blouses, peasant blouses, bolero jackets, pantsuits and smocks. By feminising the basic shapes of the male wardrobe, YSL set new standards for world fashion. He not only adapted the male tuxedo for women, but also safari jackets, pea jackets, and flying suits.

A model wears a three-piece suit designed by Yves Saint Laurent. France, 1967.

Exhibition, Yves Saint Laurent, Broadbent Gallery, 2005

Saint Laurent also changed fashion by using other types of pop culture in his clothes. He created the Mondrian dress in 1965. These colorful dresses were patterned with the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian’s abstract and geometric designs.

Yves St. Laurent "Mondrian" dress

His evening clothes were often adorned with appliqués and beadwork inspired by artists like Picasso, Miró, and Matisse.

During the 60s, he unveiled Beatnik chic – a black leather jacket and knit turtleneck with high boots and sleek pantsuits that became the uniform of the avant-garde.

In 1971 Laurent shocked the critics with a collection modelled on the styles of World War II Paris.

The "nonconformist" dress was created by French fashion designer, Yves Saint-Laurent, for the 1970-1971 Fall/Winter fashion collection.

Interesting facts about Yves Saint Laurent
One scandal centered on the designer himself, when he posed nude and floppy-haired for a photographer in 1971, wearing only his trademark thick black glasses, to promote his perfume.

Some of his revolutionary style was met with resistance. There are famous stories of women wearing Saint Laurent pantsuits who were turned away from hotels and restaurants in London and New York.

He was the first designer to use black models in his runway shows.

In 1983, he became the first living fashion designer to be honored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In 1996, Yves Saint Laurent took fashion into the digital age by broadcasting his haute couture show live on the Internet.

Like his mentor (Christian Dior), Yves Saint Laurent was painfully shy. Indeed, when Maison Yves Saint Laurent’s first collection was shown, in January of 1962, the human tide which rushed to congratulate the designer was so daunting that he ran away and tried to hide in a cupboard.

When, on January 7th 2002, famed fashion designer Yves Saint-Laurent announced that he was closing his couture house, many clients were rather disappointed. “Well,” one long-standing client declared, “I’ll have to go naked.”

Sources: Corbis, anecdotage.com, wikipedia, courtesy of Kent State University Museum,
Associated Press