YSL founder Yves Saint Laurent, fashion’s youngest prince and LGBTQ activist – 5 things you didn’t know
From his stylish muses – the “it girls” of their time – to the artists he would befriend; from the places he liked to frequent, to how women on the high street were dressed, Yves Saint Laurent was constantly looking for inspiration in the world around him.
He used his designs to respond to, reflect on, and even rebel against fashion conventions and the signs of the times. Openly homosexual, he was an activist on gay rights and founded Sidaction, a fundraising institution dedicated to AIDS research. On June 1, 2008, the designer passed away from brain cancer at his residence in Paris.
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Although the label Saint Laurent has subsequently been taken in different directions under the creative helm of Hedi Slimane and now Anthony Vaccarello, it still carries its founder’s name. Here we revisit the pivotal moments that shaped the brand and Saint Laurent’s colourful life and career.
Saint Laurent’s early influences included theatre
At 13, Saint Laurent discovered the magic of theatre in Oran, Algeria, where he was born. “It had a major impact on me. At the time, the touring theatre productions were outstanding,” he is quoted as saying in a Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris biography.
Fascinated, he furnished a tiny cardboard theatre. “I was secretly cutting up my mother’s dresses to clothe my theatre characters, whose costumes I made out of fabric.” He went on to create a mini couture house, cutting out models from his mother’s copies of Vogue, Jardin des Modes, and Paris Match.
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Following the passing of Christian Dior in 1957, Saint Laurent took over the couture house and was christened “the little prince of fashion”. His reign was short-lived.
In 1960, Saint Laurent was ordered to fight in the Algerian war. Fellow soldiers subjected him to hazing, leaving him traumatised and sent to the hospital. To manage his nervous breakdowns, Saint Laurent received electroshock treatment and psychoactive drugs, which, according to a Telegraph report, he would reveal as the cause of his mental illness and drug dependency later on.
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With his life and business partner, Pierre Bergé, Saint Laurent founded his namesake couture house in 1961. “Chanel may have given women liberty but Saint Laurent gave them power,” co-founder Bergé told The Telegraph.
He delighted in causing a scandal
In 1971, Saint Laurent showcased what would be known as “The Scandal Collection” or “The Ugliest Collection in Paris”. The 1940s-inspired repertoire was forward and daring with electric green and blue-coloured fur, platform sandals, “Saint Laurent shoulders” and dresses with corset-like waists.
It left a bad taste in audiences’ mouths, as the outfits reminded them of a sordid past: the Nazi occupation and the alleged “horizontal collaboration” of French women sleeping with the enemy. Despite the uproar, Saint Laurent’s controversial collection made fashion history for taking of-the-moment street trends to the couture runways. It ultimately defined the retro look.
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In the same year, the designer would again cause a stir, posing naked in an advertisement for YSL’s first eau de toilette for men, Pour Homme.
Morocco was his ‘happy place’
In 1966, Bergé and Saint Laurent bought their first home in Marrakech, Morocco, where the designer went on to dream up many of his collections. In 1980, they acquired the historic Jardin Majorelle.
Saint Laurent retired to their Marrakech home in 2002. He died in 2008, and his ashes were scattered in the rose garden of the estate.
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Haute couture icon left Dior to found YSL, inspiring celebrity ‘it girls’ in often controversial career