Yves Saint Laurent Dead At 71

Designer Yves Saint Laurent has died at the age of 71 in Paris. His longtime friend and partner, Pierre Berge made the announcement on Sunday without giving any details.

Saint Laurent had been ill for a long time. He was the last of his generation of high fashion clothing designers that included Coco Chanel and Christian Dior. He and his contemporaries helped make Paris the fashion capital of the world. Saint Laurent retired at the age of 65 in 2002. His clothing house was also closed the same year. He was born in Oran, Algeria on August 1, 1936. At the age of 17 he won first place in a contest sponsored by the International Wool Secretariat for a cocktail dress design. In 1954 he went to Chambre Syndicale school of haute coutre. He lasted only 3 months. Introduced to Christian Dior he was hired on the spot. When Dior died in 1957 Saint Laurent was named the head of the House of Dior. He was 21. In 1960 Saint Laurent was drafted into the military service. At the end of the first year he was given a medical discharge for nervous depression. In 1962 Saint Laurent re-entered the fashion scene by opening his own haute coutre fashion house with his partner Berge. In 1985 the Metropolitan Museum of Art devoted a show the Saint Laurent, the first for a living designer. In 1999 he sold the rights to his label to Gucci Group NV for $70 million in cash and royalties. He struggled throughout his life with depression, drugs abuse and loneliness but his partner Berge was beside him all the way.

I've known fear and terrible solitude," he said. "Tranquilizers and drugs, those phony friends. The prison of depression and hospitals. I've emerged from all this, dazzled but sober."