Yves Saint Laurent's Studio: Mirror And Secrets

A precocious talent, Yves Saint Laurent (1936-2008) started work at the venerable fashion house of Christian Dior at the age of 18. He started his own design house in 1961 with his partner Pierre Bergé. Saint Laurent was one of the first designers to hire nonwhite models, and the first to lend his name to a ready-to-wear line while maintaining his haute couture business. He became the first designer to be honored with a Costume Institute retrospective at The Metropolitan Museum of Art during his lifetime, with a 1983 show organized by Diana Vreeland, who called him the "Pied Piper of fashion," because "whatever he does, women of all ages, from all over the world, follow."