Yves-Henri-Donat-Mathieu Saint Laurent (1936-2008)

"Chanel gave women freedom. Yves Saint Laurent gave them power. He was someone who was very shy and introverted, who had only very few friends and hid himself from the world.

Like all creators, Yves Saint Laurent had two faces, a public face and a private face.

He no longer liked the world of today's fashion... he said it didn't understand him. He had a great, immense love affair with fashion. It's true that he left the profession, but in a couple you can split up because you must do so ... and still be very unhappy. That was his case."

- Pierre Berge (BBC)


"Yves Saint Laurent was born August 1, 1936 in Oran, in French Algeria. His father owned a chain of movie houses and was prosperous. His mother loved fashion. The childhood, however, was traumatic and tortuous. He was a delicate and effeminate boy who, as the Telegraph obit points out, had a solitary childhood amusing himself with his creative fancies, like making paperdolls to play with.

The story as he told it, later in life, to a mutual friend of his and mine was darker. One afternoon as an eight year old, he was raped in one of his father’s theaters. The perpetrator, he recounted, was his father – the father who he also said beat him throughout his childhood. The taunting didn’t end there – he was regularly bullied and beaten by his schoolmates. Not surprisingly, the thought of going to school made him sick."

- David Patrick Columbia (New York Social Diary)


"The new collection is about to be unveiled. Last winter's had a mixed reception. His career's at stake. If it's a flop, he'll have to close his house. Or he could be the Dior of tomorrow. It depends on those who shape public opinion."