WITH succession to the house of Dior once again the subject of intense discussion in Paris over the past few months, the publication of a new biography of Yves Saint Laurent is well timed. Saint Laurent began his career working for Chrisitian Dior, who unofficially acknowledged the Algerian born designer as his successor shorty before the older man's unexpected death in 1957.
At the time, Yves Saint Laurent was only aged 21 and had been working at Dior for a mere two years after winning first place in an International Wool Secretariat competition (an equally youthful Karl Lagerfeld came third). But his ability had been recognised immediately by Dior who offered him a job with the most prestigious couture house in Paris; one of Saint Laurent's first designs in his new position - a long white evening gown - was photographed by Richard Avedon and as "Dovima with Elephants" has become possibly the best known fashion image of the 1950s.
The season before Christian Dior's death, his young assistant produced 35 outfits for the collection, so it was inevitable that Saint Laurent should be appointed head of design at the house when that position became vacant. It is an indication of how important this post was considered to be that at the end of his first, triumphant collection for Dior one woman was reported as turning to another and saying through her tears "My dear, France is saved. It's Joan of Arc." The New York Times was hardly more measured when its reporter commented: "Today's collection has made a French national hero out of Dior's successor," while the Herald Tribune announced: "Everybody was crying. It was the emotional fashion binge of all time."
But Saint Laurent's subsequent collections for Dior were less enthusiastically received and by the time he was called up for national service in 1960, the house's owners were happy to let him go, after which they quickly announced the appointment of Marc Bohan as their new head designer. Famously, the sensitive Saint Laurent lasted a mere 19 days in the army before suffering a nervous breakdown and being transferred to the Valde Grace mental hospital. When eventually released, he and his partner Pierre Bergen first successfully sued Dior for unfair dismissal and then set up their own house under the name of Yves Saint Laurent. It was a smart move; by the time of his second season as an independent, he'd made the cover of French Vogue and the New York Times was proclaiming: "There is no doubt that Saint Laurent stands head and shoulders above most of the haute couture".
The designer's latest biographer chronicles the giddy years when Saint Laurent became fashion's favourite name thanks to collections such as the "Mondrian" range of 1965 and 1976's Ballets Russes couture clothes. As the creator of the first real pret a porter boutique chain, le smoking trouser suits, and safari jackets for women, SaintLaurent was always garnering plenty of attention but this conflicted with his reticent personality. As Alice Rawsthorn: shows, he increasingly turned to drink and drugs for confidence, eventually with disastrous effects. A friend from this period is quoted as saying: "There were lots of uppers and downers around then. And whatever went down in those days was going on in Yves's life in spades." In an interview with Anthony Burgess in the late 1970s, Saint Laurent spoke of his belief that hallucinogenic drugs had enhanced is creativity, yet in autumn 1976 he collapsed and had to be hospitalised because of the cumulative effects of drink and drugs.
"You saw the signs that substance abuse was destroying Yves Saint Laurent," according to former editor in chief of American Vogue, Grace Mirabella. "If you caught him in his studio when he wasn't expecting you, you often found a rather lost looking man with a bottle and a glass in his hand, looking like someone who couldn't remember any more how or where he'd started."
"Yves was born with a nervous breakdown," Pierre Berge once told a journalist but Saint Laurent's hyper sensitivity appears to have grown steadily worse with age, to the point where his partner would arrange to have doctors on call backstage during fashion shows. He rarely makes any public appearances any more and at the 1992 celebrations marking the 30th anniversary of his house, the designer looked confused and his speech was blurred. In the past few years, the slender boy who joined Dior in 1955 has tended to look bloated and unhealthy, while the innovator of the early 1960s has become a grand and (prematurely) old man of fashion. Even as long ago as 1984, Hebe Dorsey of the Herald Tribune was able to write "Saint Laurent is in serious danger of becoming an institution". That danger has now been realised. Enormously talented though he may be, the designer is no longer a decisive force in fashion, a fact he seems to have recognised himself since he chose not to stage a show during last month's Paris collections. But even if he never designed again, Saint Laurent's place in the fashion pantheon would be secure. As Alice Rawsthorn remarks, what sets him apart from all other designers is his versatility.
"There have been other great designers in this century, but none with the same range as Saint Laurent," observes Christian Lacroix. "I sometimes think he's got the form of Chanel with the opulence of Dior and the wit of Schiaparelli."