Yves Saint Laurent Shuts Doors To His Fashion House
Yves Saint Laurent, a towering figure of 20th-century fashion, closed the doors Thursday to the legendary fashion house he started 40 years ago. Saint Laurent, 66, who stunned the fashion world in January by announcing his retirement, paid an emotional farewell to his staff on a final visit to the company's elegant Right Bank headquarters Wednesday, said a company official on condition of anonymity.
His staff of 158 have mostly gone to work for other fashion houses or retired, while some were still looking for work elsewhere, the official said. Many of them gathered at the headquarters Thursday to pack their remaining belongings and put the finishing stitches into their work. Although the designer's house of haute couture has closed, the Yves Saint Laurent name will not disappear.
In 1999, Saint Laurent sold the rights to his ready-to-wear label, Rive Gauche, to Gucci, which now controls the brand's boutiques, fragrances and cosmetics. At Saint Laurent's final fashion show soon after he announced his retirement, thousands crowded the plaza outside the Georges Pompidou Center and watched the show on two giant video screens erected outside. The finale was a dazzling chronology of his best looks _ from safari outfits and elegant pantsuits to glamorous gowns and his trademark tuxedo for women, which was introduced in the designer's 1966 fall-winter collection and became a fashion landmark.
Born in Algeria, Saint Laurent was only 21 when he was named head designer in 1957 at House of Dior following Dior's sudden death. He opened his own haute couture fashion house in 1962 with business partner Pierre Berge. The pair later started a chain of Rive Gauche ready-to-wear boutiques. Saint Laurent is widely credited with putting women into pantsuits and breaking down other barriers between the sexes with cutting-edge designs that changed the way generations of women dressed. When he announced his retirement, he spoke of his battles with drugs, depression and loneliness, but gave no indication that those problems were directly related to his decision to stop working. "I've emerged from all this, dazzled but sober," he said. "I want to thank the women who wore my clothes, the celebrities and the unknown, who were so faithful to me and who gave me so much joy."
