Yves Saint Laurent

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The son of an insurance company president, Yves Saint Laurent was born in Oran, French Algeria|Algeria. He inherited his fashion sense from his mother and was inspired equally by her friends. He studied first at the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture, but felt frustrated by the syllabus so left after a few months. Saint Laurent left home at the age of 17 to work for the French designer Christian Dior. Following Dior's death in 1957, Yves, at the age of 21, was put in charge of the effort of saving the Dior house from financial ruin. His work for the 1958 Dior collection earned him international acclaim for his work that would come to be known as the trapeze dress, which would be integral to fashion during the 1960s.

Shortly after this success, he was conscripted to serve in the French Army during the Algerian War Algerian War of Independence]]. After 20 days, the stress of being hazing|hazed by fellow soldiers led the fragile Saint Laurent to be institutionalized in a French mental hospital, where he underwent psychiatry|psychiatric treatment, including [[electroshock therapy]], for a nervous breakdown.In 1962, in the wake of his nervous breakdown, Saint Laurent was released from Dior and he and his lover, Pierre Bergé, started their own fashion house with funding from Atlanta millionaire J. Mack Robinson.

During the 1960s and 1970s, the firm popularized fashion trends such as the [[beatnik]] look, safari jackets for men and women, tight pants and tall, thigh-high boots, including the creation of arguably the most famous classic tuxedo suit for women in 1966, the [[Le Smoking]] suit. He also started mainstreaming the idea of wearing silhouettes from the 1920s, '30s and '40s. He was the first, in 1966, to popularize ready-to-wear in an attempt to democratize fashion, with Rive Gauche and the boutique of the same name.

In 1983,  Saint Laurent became the first living fashion designer to be honored by the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] with a solo exhibition. In 2001, he was awarded the rank of Commander of the [[Légion d'Honneur]] by French president [[Jacques Chirac]]. He retired in [[2002]] and became increasingly reclusive.

He also created a foundation with Pierre Bergé in Paris to trace the history of the house of YSL, complete with 15,000 objects and 5,000 pieces of clothing.