Yves Saint Laurent: Fashion Career Chronology

1936	Yves Mathieu Saint Laurent is born August 1 in Oran, Algeria.
1953	He wins first prize in a competition sponsored by the International Wool Secretariat for a black cocktail dress.
1955	He goes to Paris and attends a professional cutting school for three months. In June, Michel de Brunhoff, editor of French Vogue sees his drawings and introduces him to Christian Dior. Dior hires him immediately. His first dress for Dior is Soirée de Paris.
1957	In October, Dior dies suddenly of a stroke and on November 15 Yves Saint Laurent is named head designer of the house of Dior.
1958	Saint Laurent presents his first collection for Dior, the "trapeze" look. Because the house of Dior is responsible for nearly 50% of French fashion exports at this time, Saint Laurent's success is deemed crucial for the French economy.
1960	Saint Laurent is drafted into the French army, but is soon hospitalized with a nervous breakdown.
1961	In September Saint Laurent announces plans to open his own couture house in partnership with Pierre Bergé and with backing from J. Mack Robinson of Atlanta, Georgia.
1962	On January 29 Saint Laurent presents his first collection under his own name. His Fall/Winter collection features the peacoat. Later he is quoted as saying, "In 1962 I put a simple peacoat in couture. I was saying it's OK to wear it. The ones with money bought it from me. The ones without money bought it from the flea market."
1966	The first Rive Gauche boutique opens on September 26. Later Saint Laurent is quoted saying, "Certainly it would be impossible to copy the couture designs in ready-to-wear. No matter how much I might want to at times, the handwork could not be duplicated by machines. For that reason, I conceive of the prêt-à-porter designs differently, in terms of machine fabrication." His collections in 1966 are the first to feature the tuxedo look for women for evening, a look that becomes a signature and appears in each successive collection.
1976	The theme of the Spring/Summer collection is an homage to the Ballets Russes, the Russian ballet troupe under the impresario Serge Diaghilev that took Paris by storm in 1909. The continuation of this theme creates an international sensation when the Fall/Winter collection is featured on the front page of The New York Times as a "revolutionary" collection " that will change the course of fashion around the world."
1988	The firm of Lesage, a Parisian embroidery house that does the embroidered garments for Yves Saint Laurent couture, produces jackets inspired by Van Gogh's Sunflowers and Irises. With approximately 750 hours of embroidery labor in each, they are the most expensive couture jackets in the world costing about $50,000 each.
1993	Although Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé retain control of the haute couture, the rest of the business, including perfumes and cosmetics, is sold to Elf Sanofi.
2000	Elf Sanofi sells the Yves Saint Laurent Group to Gucci, but Saint Laurent and Bergé retaine control of the haute couture.
2002	The Yves Saint Laurent couture house celebrates its 40th anniversary. Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé close the couture house and establish a foundation to maintain the archives of the couture house and present exhibitions of varying kinds.
Sources consulted: Yves Saint Laurent, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983 David Teboul, Yves Saint Laurent, 5, avenue Marceau, 75116 Paris, France, New York, Harry N. Abrams, Inc.