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Article: Books: France's fashion saviour Helen Storey praises a life of Yves Saint Laurent, perhaps the most influential clothes designer of the century
- Article from:
- The Sunday Telegraph London
- Article date:
- November 10, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1996 The Sunday Telegraph London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Yves Saint Laurent:
A Biography
by Alice Rawsthorn
Harper Collins, pounds 20
OCCASIONALLY, people ask, is he still alive? Yves Saint Laurent
is probably the most influential and prolific living fashion
designer this century, yet the recording of his life has in the
main been through hush and hearsay.
One of Alice Rawsthorn's many strengths is that her book
documents Saint Laurent "the man" - his struggles with mental
illness, solitude and drugs, while in possession of such an
extraordinary gift. Indeed, we are unlikely to see a designer ever
command such influence again.
Yves Henri Donat Mathieu Saint Laurent was born in Oran, Algeria,
on 1 August, 1936, "against a backdrop of natural North ...