Monday 2 June 2008

The Martyrdom of Saint Laurent

The world of fashion is today mourning the loss of Yves Saint Laurent, who died yesterday at the age of 71.

The innovative designer – known to millions for having his name on loads of t-shirts – bestrode haute couture like a colossus, apparently. Before he invented fashion forty years ago, Paris seems to have been a little-known hamlet of peasants - chiefly known, if they were known at all, for dressing in cast-off Hessian potato sacks.

Saint Laurent was the first person in history to grasp the revolutionary notion that clothes could in fact be attractive objects in their own right, rather than merely a means of keeping the draught away from the bum. He personally invented hundreds of fabrics such as cotton and silk, and patented such revolutionary creations as skirts, dresses and blouses.

But it was as the inventor of getting his name on women’s chests that Saint Laurent will be forever remembered. The couturier was such a force for good in the world that he was, uniquely, canonised by the Pope while he was still alive.

Without his guiding hand at the helm, insiders fear the collapse of the entire fashion industry within weeks.

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