Jun 2, 2008, 11:57 GMT
Paris - Fashion giant Yves Saint Laurent, who died Sunday at age 71, loved women, and this love formed the basis of his design philosophy.
Inscribed on a wall of his fashion foundation in Paris, the philosophy reads: 'The most beautiful clothes for a woman are the arms of the man she loves. But for those who have not had this good fortune, I am here.'
It can be argued that during his 45-year career, Saint Laurent had more influence on the way women dressed and felt about themselves than any other designer of the second half of the 20th century.
It was Saint Laurent who showed that women could be attractive in pants, men's tuxedo jackets, peacoats, trench coats and safari jackets.
Through his audacious, forward-looking styling, he became an icon of the women's liberation movement.
His former companion and long-time associate Pierre Berge paid tribute to him by saying, 'Saint Laurent gave power to women with the men's clothes.... He knew very well that he transformed fashion and the world, that women all over the world owed him something.'
But Saint Laurent was more than a liberator; he was also considered a genius of design.
Francois Pinault, former head of the luxury group PPR, and his son Francois-Henri Pinault, who now runs the company, said in a statement, 'More than a great designer, in reality an immense artist has left us.'
His colours were often inspired by the works of modern artists, such as Picasso or Matisse, and one of his most successful collections was based on the abstract grid paintings of Piet Mondrian.
Born Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent on August 1, 1936, in Oran, Algeria, he began designing clothes for his mother while still a teenager.
Shortly after moving to Paris at the age of 17, he won first prize in a design competition held by the International Wool Secretariat.
That led to an interview with Christian Dior, who hired him immediately as his assistant. When Dior died suddenly in 1957, his fashion house named Saint Laurent, then only 21 years old, to replace him.
His first collection as head of Dior, in January of 1958, was based on the contours of a trapeze and made him an overnight sensation.
In September 1960, shortly after being drafted for military service, Saint Laurent suffered the first bout of the depression that would afflict him for the rest of his life.
In September 1961, Saint Laurent announced that he would open his own fashion house, and showed his first collection on January 19, 1962. Within a few years his was a household name and the YSL signature had become a symbol of modern fashion.
Saint Laurent's career was marked by controversy, psychological problems and excess, particularly with the use of drugs, including cocaine and hashish.
In 1971, he posed nude for an advertisement for his own men's cologne, YSL.
That same year, he showed a collection based on styles from the 1940s, when France was occupied by the Nazis. The show was a success, but the controversy was loud and passionate.
By the time he retired in 2002, he had become reclusive and fragile. But he was already a legend: 19 years earlier, he had become the first living fashion designer to be given a show at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Your Talkback on this Story