'YSL was a creative genius'
2008-06-02 13:41
Paris - Tributes poured in from across the world on Monday for Yves Saint Laurent, who revolutionised fashion by foreseeing the rise of working women and making their outfits classy.
"Saint Laurent was one of the great couturiers, one of the few who have achieved perfection with everything they touched," said British designer Vivienne Westwood.
Saint Laurent, whose slinky tuxedo suits and safari jackets became a symbol of women's liberation in the 1960s, died aged 71 of a brain tumour late on Sunday in Paris.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he was "the first to elevate haute couture to the rank of art".
"Yves Saint Laurent infused his label with his creative genius... because he was convinced that beauty was a necessary luxury for all men and all women," he said.
'Exemplary person'
The Financial Times wrote that "the death of Yves Saint Laurent is a reminder of how he revolutionised the lives of working women with the trouser suit. (US presidential candidate) Hillary Clinton certainly has reason to be grateful to Saint Laurent".
Hanae Mori, one of Japan's most prominent designers and the only Asian woman to be accepted as a full-fledged member of France's exclusive haute couture federation, said Saint Laurent understood women more than any other designer.
"He was an exemplary person," Mori, who opened her own Paris showroom in the 1970s, told AFP.
"Even before anybody else, he understood what the new woman was. He designed trousers for working women that were very comfortable, yet that were at the same time sophisticated. It was very functional yet elegant," Mori said.
"He left the pantsuit open to interpretation. By combining it with a silk blouse or a print shirt, he could make a male style look feminine. I loved it," she said, adding that she still owns many YSL suits.
Even designers who did not particularly care for his avant-garde style called him a visionary for women who enjoyed greater economic freedom, providing for both their functional and fashion needs.
'Emperor of the fashion world
"When the pantsuit look was first launched, I didn't - and I still don't - like it because I thought it hid the woman's legs, which I believe are some of her sexiest assets," said Japanese designer Jun Ashida.
"But he had a penetrating eye for the working woman. He accurately predicted the times and he moved the world. He is the emperor of the fashion world," he told AFP.
The editor of British Vogue magazine, Alexandra Shulman, said that Saint Laurent had helped democratise fashion.
"Before that people had small salons for rich people," Shulman told the BBC.
"Saint Laurent brought it to the people. He was young and groovy. Pop stars were hanging out with him and younger generations related to him."
Francois Pinault, the head of the PPR fashion empire, said that "Yves St Laurent invented everything, revisited everything, transformed everything in the service of a passion, to let woman shine and to free her beauty and mystery".
Australian designer Collette Dinnigan, known for her slinky cocktail dresses worn by Hollywood A-listers like Nicole Kidman and Cameron Diaz, called Saint Laurent "a genius".
His death was "such a tragedy... because he was one of the last iconic designers that was left in the world," she told national news agency AAP.