Revered French couturier Mr Yves Saint Laurent has announced his retirement today, ending nearly half a century as the pre-eminent figure in post-war fashion.
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Yves Saint Laurent
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Looking solemn and dressed in black, the reclusive designer appeared before the first-ever press conference of his career at his plush central Paris headquarters and read from a long, prepared text.
"I summoned you here today to announce important news that concerns my personal life and my profession . . . I have chosen today to say goodbye to this profession that I love so much," he said.
His retirement at 65 means the closure of his haute couture business, which employs 150 people. Both he and longtime partner Mr Pierre Berge had made clear no one could ever succeed him.
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Mr Saint Laurent's last collection - for this year's spring-summer season - will be displayed at Paris's Centre Pompidou later this month, marking the 40th anniversary of his first independent show. He said it would be "in large part a retrospective of my work".
The designer, who began work under Mr Christian Dior in the 1950s, said he "thanked all the women who wear my clothes.
"I am conscious of having taken fashion forward . . . I placed myself at the service of women, of their bodies, of their expressions. I tell myself that I created the wardrobe of the contemporary woman, that I participated in the transformation of my times," he said.
Stories of his impending retirement had been circulating for several weeks, fed by reports of ill health and of poor relations with his fashion house's owner, French tycoon Mr Francois Pinault.
AFP