12 Interesting Facts About Yves Saint Laurent

Are you looking for some interesting facts about Yves Saint Laurent?

Born Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent in Oran, in the French Algeria, on the first of August in 1936, Yves Saint Laurent went on to become one of the most prominent French fashion designers in history.

Also known as simply YSL, Saint Laurent is widely recognized today as one of the foremost fashion designers of the 20th century.

He is deemed the most consistently lauded and dominant fashion designer in the past six decades. He can also be credited with making ready-to-wear “prestigious.”

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Read on if you want to learn more interesting facts about Yves Saint Laurent.

12 Interesting Facts About Yves Saint Laurent

1. Yves Saint Laurent’s journey in fashion design started with paper dolls

Growing up in a Mediterranean villa in Algeria with two sisters and no brother, Yves Saint Laurent entertained his sister and himself by making elaborate paper dolls. It was the start.

By his early teens, Saint Laurent was already designing clothes for his sisters and also their mother.

2. Saint Laurent was 17 when he moved to Paris from Algeria

Not many people are aware of Yves Saint Laurent’s roots. He was born and raised in Algeria.

When he was 17, he left the country for France, settling in Paris in his desire to pursue a career in fashion design.

3. He used to work for Christian Dior

In 1953, Yves Saint Laurent had been living in the French capital for a year when a drawing he made won him a design contest.

This made Christian Dior notice him, recognizing his talent at once. He then hired the young Saint Laurent as his assistant.

However, Saint Laurent did not immediately become a designer for the House of Dior. The young immigrant from Algeria spent his first year working for the acclaimed French fashion designer doing menial tasks such as decorating the studio.

He also designed accessories before he was allowed to show his sketches for the House’s couture collection.

4. Saint Laurent’s first collection for the House of Dior saved it from near financial ruin

At 21 years old, Yves Saint Laurent became Dior’s head designer. It was in the late 1950s, when the House was facing financial challenges.

Saint Laurent’s 1958 spring collection as head designer of the House of Designer was so successful it saved the company from near financial ruin. This collection featured simple, flaring lines dubbed the Trapeze line, which was an alternative for the House’s 1955 A-Line.

Dresses in the said collection highlighted a narrow shoulder that gently flared to a knee-covering hem. The Trapeze line shot Yves Saint Laurent into international fame.

5. A future queen and empress was the first famous woman to wear Yves Saint Laurent’s design to her wedding

Yves Saint Laurent left an inspiring legacy in fashion. His wedding dresses, in particular, reflect his innovative outlook.

Farah Diba, third wife of the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, is the first famous woman to have chosen Saint Laurent to design her wedding dress.

Diba was an architecture student in Paris when she and the Shah first met at the Iranian embassy in the French capital. They got married on 21 December 1959, with the future Queen and Empress of Iran wearing a wedding gown Saint Laurent designed under the House of Dior.

Saint Laurent created the most iconic wedding dress with details that show he was not afraid to embrace creativity. These details include tulle, feathers, and flowers.

6. Saint Laurent was bullied for being gay

Saint Laurent was openly gay. Back in the days, homosexuality was not as common and accepted as it is nowadays.

In the years prior to 1960, Saint Laurent was frequently bullied for his gender preference. His effeminate ways were frowned upon, which resulted in him getting bullied by his peers for years.

7. His nervous breakdown cost Saint Laurent his job at the House of Dior

Having been bullied all his youth, one could assume that Saint Laurent would have grown accustomed to it by the time he was an adult. However, the worst, it appeared, had yet to come.

The worst happened when he was summoned for French military service. This made him suffer a nervous breakdown so great that it took him a while to recover. By the time he was finally okay, Dior had already fired him.

8. His life partner financially assisted Saint Laurent in setting up his own fashion business

Losing his job at Christian Dior was a huge blow to Yves Saint Laurent. However, help was on its way and the previous setback with his mental illness and Dior would prove a blessing in disguise.

Saint Laurent’s friend and partner, French industrialist Pierre Bergé, helped the fashion designer with finances so he could set up his own fashion business.

With Bergé’s funding, Saint Laurent was able to establish his own clothing, accessory, and perfume business. And the rest, as they say, is historty.

9. Bianca Jagger wore a YSL woman’s tux suit to her wedding

While the future Queen and Empress of Iran wore a classic wedding gown to her wedding to his royal groom, the bride of rock ‘n’ roll royal himself – Mick Jagger – also wore a YSL creation.

This time, however, it was a woman’s tux suit that Saint Laurent created. The creation mixes elements of male and female fashion.

The design that Bianca Jagger wore to her 1971 wedding was called the Le Smoking tux suit for women.

10. In 1990, Saint Laurent suffered from mental health issues as well as drug abuse

The French designer again suffered a major nervous collapse, which was worse than what happened nearly thirty years before. Saint Laurent was diagnosed with severe depression and bipolar disorder coupled with alleged drug abuse.

In March of 1990, he was rushed to the hospital due to extreme mental exhaustion. He had been hospitalized to recuperate and advised to rest for several weeks.

11. In 1983, Yves Saint Laurent became the first living person to be honored with his own solo exhibition by the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York revealed in 1983 that the Costume Institute’s exhibition would be entirely dedicated to the works of Paris-based couturier Yves Saint Laurent. This collection consisted of 243 styles that highlight Saint Laurent’s 25 years of work and contribution that had left an indelible mark on the 20th-century fashion.

The event took place on December 5, 1963, at a sparkling black-tie dinner-dance held at the famed museum in New York City, USA.

Saint Laurent’s most notable creations in the exhibition include the two world-renowned designs, both from 1965, that were inspired by Dutch painter Piet Mondrian and French visual artist Henri Matisse.

12. Saint Laurent died of brain cancer in Paris at 71 years old

Yves Saint Laurent was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in May of 2008.

However, his life partner Pierre Bergé and the doctor mutually decided that it would be best to spare Saint Laurent of the knowledge – and hence agony – of his own impending death.

Saint Laurent died in his home in Paris on the first day of June that year. His ashes were scattered in the botanical garden called the Majorelle Garden in the residence that he and Bergé owned in Marrakech, Morocco.