Yves Henri Donat Mathieu Saint Laurent, more popularly known as Yves Saint Laurent, has long been one of the icons in the fashion industry. The French designer was born in Algeria but moved to Paris right after secondary school to chase his dream of establishing a career in fashion. His efforts soon paid off for at the very early age of 17, he landed the job of assistant to Christian Dior himself. The unfortunate death of Dior four years later opened doors for Saint Laurent because he was named the head of the empire Dior left behind. With much experience to his name, Saint Laurent started his own fashion empire in 1962.

Saint Laurent is revered as one of the most influential and prominent designers ever. In fact, he was actually the one who popularized the use of trousers for women at a time when trousers were deemed for just men.

Enter the 60s, and Saint Laurent introduced the use of both transparent and metallic fabrics in his very own collection. Because of this, Saint Laurent was strongly associated with what was and is still known as the Swinging Sixties look. His see-through blouses became the in-thing all over the world at the time. In the 70s, Saint Laurent took his cue from ethnic costumes and introduced what is known as the haute peasant look. This look included safari jackets for both men and women.

But if there is one major contribution on the runway that Saint Laurent has to his name, it is the fact that he was the very first designer to have black models participate in shows on the runway. He also designed clothes for a lot of huge names in the industry, such as Loulou de la Falaise, Betty Catroux, Talitha Pol-Getty, Catherine Deneuve, and Katoucha Niane.

Aside from the iconic clothes Saint Laurent designed, he also has a number of fragrances to his belt. These include Y released in 1964, Rive Gauche in 1971, Opium in 1978, Paris in 1983, Champagne in 1993, which was renamed Yvresse in 1996, Opium for Men in 1996, Baby Doll in 1999, and Nu in 2001.