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Yves Saint Laurent est mort (dead)

RTL a annoncé sur son antenne la disparition d'Yves Saint Laurent. Le couturier est mort ce soir à l'âge de 71 ans des suites d'un cancer. C'est en 1961 qu'Yves Saint Laurent, originaire d'Oran, s'installe à Paris et ouvre sa première maison de couture grâce à l'aide de Pierre Berger qui devient son compagnon.

Le premier succès du créateur sera le smoking qu'il adapta pour la première fois pour la femme, son « label ». Après une carrière longue de près de 40 ans, il annonce son retrait de la haute couture le 7 janvier 2002 et organise un ultime défilé avec son égérie, Catherine Deneuve. Depuis, la Fondation Pierre Bergé Yves Saint Laurent, installée dans le XVIe arrondissement à Paris, propose une collection de 5 000 vêtements du créateur.

A la mort de Maria Callas, Yves Saint Laurent dira : « Les Dieux s'ennuyaient, ils ont rappelé leur voix ». Yves Saint Laurent fut l'un des créateurs les plus prolifiques de sa génération et le symbole du luxe à la française partout à travers le monde.

PARIS (AP) -- Legendary designer Yves Saint Laurent, who reworked the rules of fashion by creating elegant pantsuits that came to define how modern women dressed, died Sunday evening, a longtime friend and associate said. He was 71.
Pierre Berge did not give details but said Saint Laurent had died following a long illness.

A towering figure of 20th century fashion, Saint Laurent was widely considered the last of a generation that included Christian Dior and Coco Chanel and made Paris the fashion capital of the world, with the Rive Gauche, or Left Bank, as its elegant headquarters.

In the fast-changing world of haute couture, Saint Laurent was hailed as the most influential and enduring designer of his time. From the first YSL tuxedo and his trim pantsuits to see-through blouses, safari jackets and glamorous gowns, Saint Laurent created instant classics that remain stylish decades later.

When the designer announced his retirement in 2002 at age 65 and the closure of the Paris-based haute couture house he had founded 40 years earlier, it was mourned in the fashion world as the end of an era. His ready-to-wear label, Rive Gauche, which was sold to Gucci in 1999, still has boutiques around the world.

In October 2006, Saint Laurent slipped and fell outside a Paris restaurant during Fashion Week, suffering slight scratches but reminding fans of the perennially fragile designer's advancing age.