Yves St Laurent: Celebrating a charismatic life

The portrait of Yves Saint Laurent (1974) by Andy Warhol.

The glasses of Saint Laurent.

Dresses and hat creations.

“Paris was that mythical place that he wanted to be a part of, the epicentre of French culture.”

Dresses and hat creations.

Madison Cox, vice-president of the Fondation Berge-Saint Laurent and the husband of Pierre Berge, the late co-founder of fashion house Yves Saint-Laurent.

The nearby Cafe de Flore on Boulevard St Germain was where he often met Deneuve, for whom he designed the iconic costumes in the era-defining film, Belle de Jour. From here, I retrace what would have been Yves’s walk home, a 15-minute stroll westwards to the residential 7th arrondissement, in the shadow of the gold dome of the Invalides. The designer’s former apartment on Rue de Babylone faces a couple of sleepy bistros. It’s easy to walk straight past a small stone plaque on the wall. It reads: “Yves Saint Laurent, couturier francais lived in this building”.

The glittering letters of the museum across the river on Avenue Marceau are harder to miss.