Yves Saint Laurent

Yves Saint Laurent, who exploded onto the fashion scene in 1958 as the successor boy asks Christian Dior and endured as one of fashion’s best known and most influential of the second half of the 20th century, died on June 1, 2008 in Paris. He was 71.
The designer, who has probably more in advance so that any other of his generation paved the way to the future constantly reliving the past. His enduring fascination with more gracious or, perhaps, more vital times, informed his refined, theatrical aesthetic and made him the most influential designer of his time. Its mode of celebrating the 60′s and 70′s continue to inspire younger generations.
Yves Saint Laurent achieved his greatest triumph in the midst of a notoriously turbulent emotional life, giving him the mythical stature in his time. Born Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent in Oran, Algeria, he seemed to burnishing that myth from an early age. Early, he entered a design contest while still in his teens and won the attention of Christian Dior, who eventually used him to regain his legendary fashion house. In 1958, shortly after the death of Dior, Saint Laurent, then 21, was saved from dying of Dior with his Trapeze line, displaying a daring that would flourish in much of his career. Jackets motorcycle-inspired beat and turtlenecks of the next, and last, collection for Dior were widely disparaged yet sealed his reputation as a designer who elevated the look of the streets in high fashion. (Reprinted)