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Yves Saint Laurent Milestones
1936 Birth of Yves Saint Laurent, Oran, Algeria.
1953 Wins the International Wool Secretariat competition, beating Karl Lagerfeld.
1955 Designer assistant at Christian Dior House.
1957 Becomes Christian Dior’s head designer after the death of Monsieur Dior.
1958 Triumph of his first collection with the ‘Trapeze’ dress.
1960 Quits Dior to serve in the French army during the Algerian War of Independence.
1962 Creation of the House of Yves Saint Laurent, by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé.
1964 First women fragrance, ‘Y’, created by Jean Amic.
1965 ‘Mondrian’ dresses.
1966 Launch of ‘Le Smoking’, a tailored tuxedo suit for women.
Creation of YSL Rive Gauche, the first Ready-To-Wear line of a Haute Couture House.
1969 Yves Saint Laurent enters men Fashion.
1971 Poses naked for the ad campaign of his new fragrance ‘Pour Homme’.
1978 Launch of the ‘Opium’ women fragrance.
1983 YSL Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.
Launch of ‘Paris’ by Yves Saint Laurent women fragrance.
1985 Yves Saint Laurent is awarded Knight of the Légion d’honneur by the French president, François Mitterand.
1988 Launch of ‘Jazz’ men fragrance.
1993 Launch of the ‘Champagne’ women fragrance, renamed shortly after its launch ‘Yvresse’.
1998 François Pinault (Gucci Group) buys the House of Yves Saint Laurent.
1999 Alber Elbaz is the women Ready-to-Wear artistic director.
Hedi Slimane is the men Ready-To–Wear artistic director.
2001 Awarded the rank of Commander of the Légion d’Honneur by the French president, Jacques Chirac.
2002 Yves Saint Laurent retires from Haute Couture. Tom Ford takes the succession.
2004 Stefano Pilati replaces Tom Ford as director of the Fashion House of YSL.
2006 Launch of ‘L’Homme’, fragrance for men.
2007 First YSL manifesto featuring Gisele Bundchen.
Launch of ‘Elle’, women fragrance, embodied by the model Coco Rocha.
2008 Yves Saint Laurent passes away.
2009 Launch of ‘La Nuit de l’Homme’ with Vincent Cassel as spokesman.
New women fragrance, Parisienne, embodied by Kate Moss.