In August, our movie night will feature a biopic portraying the life of French designer Yves Saint Laurent.
Yves Saint Laurent was born on August 1st1936 in Oran, Algeria to French parents (Pieds-Noirs). By his early teens, he was designing dresses for his mother and two sisters. His talent was recognized when he won first place in a contest by the International Wool Secretariat at the age of 17. This achievement led to his move to Paris a year later where he got enrolled at the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture.
The designs of Saint Laurent quickly gained notice by Michel de Brunhoff, the editor of Vogue France, who introduced him to the giant designer in the fashion world Christian Dior who hired him as an assistant. In 1960, he was drafted into the French army and was later fired from the house of Dior. This led him to establish his own eponymous fashion label with the assistance of his partner Pierre Bergé.
Saint Laurent’s unique style approached his aesthetic from a different perspective by helping women find confidence with both a comfortable and elegant look and by introducing the Mondrian dress and the Smoking Tuxedo suit for women. He also introduced the big shoulder pad look in 1978 which dominated the jacket look of the 1980’s.
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 and was awarded the rank of Commander of the Legion d’Honneur by French president Jacques Chirac. In 2007, Saint Laurent was awarded the rank of Grand Officier de la Légion d’Honneur by French president Nicolas Sarkozy.
He died June 1st 2008 of brain cancer and was given a Catholic funeral at the church of Saint Roch in Paris. His funeral was attended by Farrah Pahlavi, Bernadette Chirac, Catherine Deneuve, Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni. His body was cremated, and his ashes scattered in Marrakech in the Majorelle Garden, a residence and botanical garden he owned with Bergé since 1980 where he often visited to find inspiration and refuge.