Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent, known as Yves Saint Laurent (August 1936 –  June 2008), was an Algerian-born French fashion designer who was considered one of the greatest figures in French fashion in the 20th century. His father was a successful businessman. In 1985, Caroline Rennolds Milbank wrote, “The most consistently celebrated and influential designer of the past twenty-five years, Yves Saint Laurent can be credited with both spurring the couture’s rise from its sixties ashes and with finally rendering ready-to-wear reputable”.

Yves found himself at the age of 21 the head designer of the House of Dior. His Spring 1958 collection almost certainly saved the House from financial ruin; the straight line of his creations, a softer version of Dior’s New Look, catapulted him to international stardom with what would later be known as the ‘trapeze dress’, which included dresses with a narrow shoulder and flared gently at the bottom. It was at this time that he shortened his surname to “Saint Laurent”, as the international press found his hyphenated triple name difficult to spell.

He founded his own company in 1962, and from then on YSL has become a symbol of fashion. His designs were very bold and innovative. He was also the first designer to use black models in his runway shows, and one of the first to use Asian and Pacific Islander models.

Yves Saint Laurent was the genius of the fashion world; however, he was also in the trap of defenseless in his life. He knew he was a gay, but ashamed to admit it. He was even married to a woman to cover this fact; his friend and agent, Pierre Bergé, companied him for decades; he and the current Chanel designer Karl were against each other, because they were both in love with the French nobleman Jacques de Bascher; he and a famous movie star Catherine Deneuve was among the feelings of ambiguous and last a lifetime. The love stories of his life were complicated. Many people write biography for him. But in the end, people can find that nobody knows the true feeling of his inner heart.

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