Fridae

Yves Saint Laurent to retire and close the fashion house he started 40 years ago

Yves Saint Laurent, whose name has been synonymous with the heights of haute couture for decades, announced Monday he is retiring.

The gay designer read a statement at his Paris fashion house but took no questions. He told a room packed with journalists, photographers, and camera crews, ?I have chosen today to bid farewell to this profession, which I have loved too much."

Confirming what had been widely rumoured and published, Saint Laurent announced that the collection he will show on Jan. 22 will be his last and that the couture house will close after celebrating its 40th anniversary.

"I have today decided to bid farewell to the world of fashion I have so loved," he said. "I am extremely proud that women the world over today wear pantsuits, tuxedos, pea jackets and trench coats. In many ways I feel that I have created the wardrobe of the contemporary woman."

The 65-year-old introduced stylish, tailored pantsuits for women in the 1970s which has since become a wardrobe staple of today's working woman. He was also responsible for some of fashion's most memorable looks, including the women's tuxedo, the safari jacket and the daring see-through blouse.

Saint Laurent did not only create designer wear for women. In 1969, he threw out the traditional pin-stripe suit and pioneered designer menswear.

The Algerian-born Saint Laurent who has been plagued by ill health in recent years was only 18 when he became the assistant to fashion legend Christian Dior. Saint Laurent trained under Dior for three years and took over Dior's fashion house when Dior died in 1957.

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His career at the House of Dior was short-lived as he was called to serve at the French Military in 1960. Instead of returning to the fashion house, he founded his own firm, Yves Saint Laurent when his military obligation in 1962.

In 1999, Italian luxury goods company Gucci bought the parent company of Yves Saint Laurent for US$1 billion. After the deal, only the haute couture business, a tiny, loss-making enterprise that sells US$10,000 handmade frocks to rich socialites and celebrities remained under the control of the French designer.

Saint Laurent's business partner and former (romantic) partner, Pierre Berge, said he believed Saint Laurent had decided to retire because he was uncomfortable with the direction the fashion world had taken.

"We have entered the era of marketing, at the expense of creativity," Berge told The Associated Press.

According to media reports, the designer has often closely guarded his privacy, but his homosexuality, battles with depression and drug and alcohol problems were well-known. He said in his statement, "I've known fear and terrible solitude? Tranquilizers and drugs, those phony friends. The prison of depression and hospitals. I've emerged from all this, dazzled but sober."

The designer who came out publicly as gay in an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro in 1991, has been increasingly reclusive since the break up of his long term relationship with Pierre Berge 25 years ago.