The fashion industry lost one of the 20th centuries greatest designers today. 71 year-old Yves Saint Laurent died Sunday, June 1, 2008 in Paris.

Laurent studied and learned all about designer fashion from the house of Dior, eventually starting his own couture company with his life partner Pierre Berge in the early 1960’s.

Pierre Berge told LCI television

“He knew perfectly well that he had revolutionised haute couture, the important place he occupied in the second half of the 20th century,”.

Seven years ago at Laurent’s farewell fashion appearance Saint Laurent told reporters that he had

“always given the highest importance of all to respect for this craft, which is not exactly an art, but which needs an artist to exist.”

“Chanel, Schiaparelli, Balenciaga and Dior all did extraordinary things. But they worked within a particular style,” he explained. “Yves Saint Laurent is much more versatile, like a combination of all of them. I sometimes think he’s got the form of Chanel with the opulence of Dior and the wit of Schiaparelli.”

says fellow designer Christian Lacroix.

The world of fashion will be a darker place without Yves Saint Laurent.

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