Remembering YSL: An Icon
evawhite on June 11th, 2008
I remember when I was a teenager, someone gifted me some miniature samples of Rive Gauche, Opium, Paris, designer fragrances from Yves Saint Laurent, and if I shut my eyes I can still recall those fragrances, and to this day Opium remains one of my favorite fragrances in the world!
Yves Stain Laurent or YSL died on 1 June 2008 bringing into sharp focus his incredible contribution of the world of fashion in a career spanning many decades. Widely credited with the invention and popularization of the trouser suit, and giving people the option of prêt line in haute couture he was a colossus of the fashion industry whose departure will leave a gaping void. He made haute couture more accessible to the masses rather than keep it an exclusive domain for the elite. He is said to have no equal when it comes to range and versatility in fashion design.
YSL was chiefly responsible for the tantalizing concept of putting women in men’s clothing such as safari suits, the trench coat, smoking jackets etc. In the event the designer has earned himself the distinction of being something of a liberator of sartorial trends for women. Another first that the pioneer designer has been attributed with is the use of black models for his runway shows.
His longstanding partnership with Pierre Berge was both of a professional and a personal nature and according to The New York Times a few days before he died, Saint Laurent and Bergé were joined in a same-sex civil union known as a “civil pact of solidarity” in France.
The trouser suit, which YSL is widely believed to have created, was fittingly much in evidence at his well attended funeral, with many of the women present wearing them. Among the notables was Carla Bruni, wife of French President Sarkozy who happened to be one of YSL’s models of days past.
Beleaguered in life by ailments such as depression, substance abuse and addiction, it was a brain tumor that finally took the reclusive maestro’s life in Paris, where he was given what amounted nearly to a state funeral. He was thereafter buried in Morocco where he spent a lot of his life and which country also influenced and inspired him greatly.
