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The Forum: Yves Saint Laurent: Fashion revolutionary

Discussion & Talk

Yves Saint Laurent with two fashion models, Betty Catroux (left) and Loulou de la Falaise

17/03/2018 GMT

Yves Saint Laurent: Fashion revolutionary

BBC World Service - The Forum, Yves Saint Laurent: Fashion revolutionary

Bridget Kendall and guests on the glamorous world of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent.

Bridget Kendall talks to Olivier Flaviano, Emilie Hammen and Charles Sébline about French designer Yves Saint Laurent, whose fashion innovations shaped the way women dress today.

In the ten years since his death, the impact of designer Yves Saint Laurent on women’s fashion remains undimmed.  The pea coat, the trench, the trouser suit – many of his designs are now staples of the modern Western woman’s wardrobe.  So how did this famously shy and retiring man achieve global success?  And did his fashion innovations for women shape social change in the 1960s, or were they a response to his times?   

Bridget Kendall looks back at Saint Laurent’s life and legacy with director of the Yves Saint Laurent Museum, Olivier Flaviano, fashion historian Emilie Hammen and one of Saint Laurent’s last assistants, designer Charles Sébline.


Photo: Yves Saint Laurent, French designer, with two fashion models, Betty Catroux (left) and Loulou de la Falaise, outside his 'Rive Gauche' shop. 
Credit: John Minihan, Getty Images.

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