This Behind-The-Scenes Look At Saint Laurent's first year as an independent designer provides an unprecedented portrait showing the hard work behind the fashion genius's early & meteoric rise.

Founded by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge in 1961, shortly after the young couturier left his post at the helm of Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent would soon become one of the most successful and influential haute couture houses in Paris. Introducing Le Smoking, the first tuxedo suit for women, in 1966, Saint Laurent also presented iconic art-inspired creations, from Mondrian dresses to precious Van Gogh embroidery and the famous Ballets Russes collection. This definitive publication opens with a concise history of the house, followed by a brief biographical profile of Yves Saint Laurent, before exploring the collections themselves, organized chronologically. Each collection is introduced by a short text unveiling its influences and highlights, and illustrated with a gallery of carefully curated catwalk images. These showcase hundreds of spectacular clothes, details, accessories, beauty looks and set designs - and, of course, the top fashion models who wore them on the runway. A rich reference section concludes the book.

Originally born in Algeria, Yves Saint Laurent moved to Paris when he was 18, and only three years later he was handpicked by Christian Dior to take the reins as designer of his fashion house. Over time, Saint Laurent resurrected haute couture from the casual mores that predominated in the 1960s, but also offered chic cachet to ready-to-wear clothing. He was among the earliest of designers to incorporate non-European references into his work, and in 1983 he became the first living designer to be feted with a solo exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Vogue on Yves Saint Laurent is a stellar volume in the series from the editors of British Vogue, featuring 20,000 words of original biography and history and studded with more than 80 images from their unique archive of images taken by leading photographers.

Celebrating sixty years of Yves Saint Laurent, this collection juxtaposes YSL creations with fine art masterpieces from major museums. In January 1962, Yves Saint Laurent launched his very first collection. To celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of his couture house, the Musée Yves Saint Laurent, Paris, is looking back at the couturier’s work and juxtaposing his creations with art works from the collections of five major Paris institutions: the Musée d’Orsay, the Louvre, the Centre Pompidou, the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, and the Musée Picasso, as well as presenting a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the secrets of couture at the Musée Yves Saint Laurent. From the ancient world to pop art, Yves Saint Laurent regularly took inspiration from art history as he combined colors, carved out new forms, and rethought the structure of garments in order to create his own masterpieces. Here, androgynous silhouettes and Proustian gowns stand alongside Édouard Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe, feather patterns respond to Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings, flowing silhouettes merge with a mural by Raoul Dufy, Lucio Fontana’s neon lights make metallic fabrics sparkle, and the motifs on a coat echo The Dance by Henri Matisse. Exploring the couturier’s deliberate homages to the masters of art and his never-ending quest for new means of aesthetic expression, Yves Saint Laurent and Art takes readers on an unforgettable journey through art history with Yves Saint Laurent as a guide.

This definitive portrait of the creative genius who transformed fashion is the first major English-language biography of Yves Saint Laurent since his death in 2008, featuring exclusive interviews of those who knew him best, by one of the most respected names in French fashion. Yves Saint Laurent's impact on fashion is legendary, yet he remains an enigmatic and compelling figure. Tracing the development of Saint Laurent's visionary work through his charmed yet tumultuous life, respected fashion writer Laurence Benaïm's newly translated and updated biography of the famed designer explores how this unassuming prodigy became a legendary, celebrated public icon who changed the face of fashion, style, and celebrity. Enriched by the author's exclusive interviews--from Saint Laurent's partner Pierre Bergé to family members, his atelier staff, and muses such as Catherine Deneueve, LouLou de la Falaise, and Paloma Picasso--this fascinating biography chronicles early glimpses of Saint Laurent's talent in Oran and his star trajectory, from leading the House of Dior at the age of twenty-one to his fall from grace and subsequent forging with Pierre Bergé, fashion's most enduring and successful professional partnership. In portraying the man behind the timeless icons of the Mondrian-print shift dress and the Le Smoking trouser suit--who partied with Warhol in New York and relaxed with the jet set in his Marrakesh hideaway--Benaïm powerfully illuminates both the glittering world of haute couture and the business empire that revolutionized the fashion industry.

The story of Saint Laurent Rive Gauche, the first ready-to-wear clothing line launched by a couture house. Exploring Laurent's progressive approach to fashion, it highlights the cultural impact of the brand, especially its influence on women during the 60s and 70s.

"Retrospective exhibition of twenty-five years of ... [Yves Saint Laurent's] work ... This book, published in connection with the exhibition, features over two hundred of Saint Laurent's couture designs, more than seventy in full color ... Also included is a fully illustrated survey of Saint Laurent's work photographed in black and white by Pierre Boulat and Nicholas Vreeland, supplemented by historically important photographs published in the fashion magazines of the era taken by such renowned photographers as Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Bert Stern, Neal Barr, and Bill King"--Cover.