You Need To Know-Designer Yves Saint Laurent.Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent, known as Yves Saint Laurent 1 August 1936 – 1 June 2008), was an Algerian-born French fashion designer who was considered one of the greatest names in French fashion in the 20th century[2]. 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".
Early life and education.
He was born in Oran, French Algeria. Algerian-born French fashion designer. He left for Paris after secondary school to pursue a fashion career and at 17 was hired as Christian Dior's assistant. When Dior died four years later, he was named head of the House of Dior. In 1962 he opened his own fashion house and quickly emerged as one of the world's most influential designers.
In 1953, Saint Laurent submitted three sketches to a contest for young fashion designers, organized by the International Wool Secretariat. He won third place and was invited to attend the awards ceremony in Paris, in December of that year. While he and his mother were in Paris, they met Michel de Brunhoff, editor-in-chief of the Paris edition of Vogue magazine. de Brunhoff, a kindly man who enjoyed encouraging new talent, was impressed by the sketches Saint Laurent brought with him and suggested he become a fashion designer. He eventually consider a course of study at the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture, the council which regulated the haute couture industry and provided training to its employees. Saint Laurent followed his advice and, leaving Oran for Paris after graduation, began his studies at the Chambre Syndicale, but he found the syllabus frustrating and left after a few months.
Later that same year, Saint Laurent entered the International Wool Secretariat competition again and won, beating out his friend Fernando Sanchez and a young German student named Karl Lagerfeld.[3] Shortly after his win, he brought a number of sketches to de Brunhoff who recognized in them close similarities to sketches he had been shown that morning by Christian Dior, a leading haute couturier. Knowing that Dior had created the sketches that morning and that the young man could not have seen them, de Brunhoff sent him to Dior, who hired him on the spot.
Although Dior recognized his talent immediately, Saint Laurent spent his first year at the House of Dior on mundane tasks, such as decorating the studio and designing accessories. Eventually, however, he was allowed to submit sketches for the couture collection; with every passing season, more of his sketches were accepted by Dior. In August 1957, Dior met with Saint Laurent's mother to tell her that he had chosen Saint Laurent to succeed him as designer. His mother later said that she had been confused by the remark, as Dior was only 52 years old at the time. Both she and her son were surprised when in October of that year Dior died at a health spa in northern Italy of a massive heart attack.
Saint Laurent found himself at the age of 21 the head designer of the House of Dior after the death of Christian 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.
His Fall 1958 collection was not greeted with the same level of approval as his first collection had been, and later collections for the House of Dior featuring hobble skirts and beatnik fashions were savaged by the press. In 1960 Saint Laurent found himself conscripted to serve in the French Army during the Algerian War of Independence. Alice Rawsthorn writes that there was speculation at the time that Marcel Boussac, the owner of the House of Dior and a powerful press baron, had put pressure on the government not to conscript Saint Laurent in 1958 and 1959, but reversed course and asked that the designer be conscripted after the disastrous 1960 season so that he could be replaced.
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