This native Algerian designer was born with the full name Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent. Born the oldest child to a descendent of Baron Mathieu de Mauvieres (who just happened to officiate at Napoleon Bonaparte and Josephine's wedding) as well as the son of a very fashionable Belgium and Spanish mother.

While at school, Yves Saint Laurent was severely harassed and bullied. His home became his stage, the reviews of theatrical costumes in French Vogue, his muse. Naturally, the fashion section quickly became a source of fascination and obsession for Saint Laurent.

Vogue would almost immediately come to play an integral part in the formation of Yves's designing career. After placing in a fashion-sketching contest, he met the Editor-in -Chief of French Vogue Michel de Brush-off. Quite taken with the talent that Saint Laurent displayed he encouraged him to attend the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture. Although this school was known for cultivating designers at the couture level, Saint Laurent did not stay long at the school and instead followed his own independent and ingenious knack for designing to a superior level.

Competitions often can cause stress for participants, fueling insecurities and heightening emotions. For Saint-Laurent, however these competitions showcased his immeasurable talent and indeed pitted him against the best of his peers, including the likes of Karl Lagerfeld. Winning one such competition, such as the International Wool Secretariat would indeed lead to his acceptance at the imperial couture design house of Christian Dior.

So, at 21, Yves Saint Laurent was the head designer at Christian Dior. Most designers are lucky to be assistants at any fashion firm at any level at such an age. To be the head of a world-renowned name at such a young age was indeed unheard of. However, Dior himself, just shortly before his death chose Saint Laurent as his successor.
The first collection for the house of Dior was a raging success, due largely to the ‘trapeze dress', showcasing narrow shoulders and softly flared hems. Although this first collection received rave reviews, Saint Laurent was not so lucky in following seasons. The press indeed, was not kind imparting scathing reviews of his later collections.

Adding fuel to an already tumultuous personal and professional period of his life, Yves Saint-Laurent was drafted into the French army during the Algerian War in 1960. Brutal hazing and the news of his ouster from the House of Dior quite nearly broke Saint-Laurent. Val-de-Grace would be the next stop in this unfortunate tour for Yves Saint-Laurent. This was a terrible mental hospital where he was subjected to psychoactive drugs and electroshock therapy; and it would indeed form the basis of future mental and drug addictions during the course of his life.

The amazing ability of some of us to transcend the most difficult periods of life, to rise above and indeed exceed not only the expectations of naysayers and even close friends, but to bear down and conquer our own most horrendous demons is what sets apart a few spectacular people in this world. Yves Saint-Laurent was one of these amazing people.

Shortly after surviving these unbelievable events, Yves Saint-Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge would create their own amazing events and turn the world of fashion on its head.

The 60's & 70's were a crazy tumultuous time of their own and this duo responded in kind with exactly what the world was ready for, but didn't know that they needed.  Silhouettes from the 1920's through the 40's were reinvented and renewed. The first prêt-a-porter (ready to wear) line came from the YSL house. The unequivocal fashion standards such as the beatnik look, thigh-high boots and safari jackets all came from this one amazing design house. Modernizing the definition of women. Without Yves, the decades of the 60's & the 70's would have had a very different vibe had it not been for the absolutely notorious tuxedo suit for women-Le Smoking Jacket in 1966.

Alternately controversial and adored, Yves Saint-Laurent broke boundaries on every front. The first designer to use black models in his runway shows and also one of the first to use Asian and Pacific Islander models, he would forever alter the world's standard and ideals of what was beautiful in fashion and faces.

Although Yves Saint Laurent would succumb on occasion to the pressures of designing multiple couture and ready to wear lines per year, his fashions have remained immensely popular with his fans.

But what was his inspiration? Who drove him to create such novel and unique visions and turn the world on its head? Yves Saint-Laurent looked at everything: Picasso, literature, and worldly influences like Africa Russia and China. And of course, beautiful women. It is not unusual for a designer to have a muse. Saint-Laurent, however, was fortunate to have many of the best in the world to fuel his creative fire. Catherine Deneuve, Loulou de la Falaise and the immensely popular Victoria's Secret model Laetitia Casta were among these lovely inspirations.

Gucci bought the YSL and the house was lucky to bring Tom Ford to the YSL label in 1999 and Stefano Pilati in 2005; the label has been at an epic level ever since.

2002 was Saint-Laurent's last couture line and fashion show, a fond farewell to a master of fashion, serenaded by one of his very own muses, Catherine Deneuve.

Yves Saint-Laurent died on June 1, 2008 from a long battle with brain cancer. Glamorizing women in unexpected ways and escalating fashion to new, and sometimes controversial levels, Yves Saint-Laurent is a designer who will be sorely missed but will live on through the amazing and ever-evolving creations at YSL.