Yves Saint Laurent dies in Paris

Yves Saint Laurent, one of the most influential and enduring designers of the last 40 years, died yesterday at the age of 71. His former lover and long-standing business partner, Pierre Berge, revealed that he passed away at his Paris home, having suffered from a respiratory disease for many years.

President Sarkozy, whose "bling-bling" style would probably have elicited a raised eyebrow from Saint Laurent, was among the first to pay tribute, perhaps with a little help from wife, Carla Bruni. He said: "One of the greatest names in fashion has disappeared, the first to elevate haute couture to the rank of art and that gave him global influence. Yves Saint Laurent infused his label with his creative genius, elegant and refined personality, discrete and distinguished, during a half century of work, in both luxury and ready-to-wear, because he was convinced that beauty was a necessary luxury for all men and all women."

Born in 1936 in Algeria - at the time a French colony - Saint Laurent was one of a handful of couturiers, including Christian Dior and Coco Chanel, who made Paris the fashion capital of the world.

He got his first break after winning a prize in a contest for a cocktail dress design in 1954. He was introduced to Dior, who took him into his fashion house. When Dior died suddenly in 1957, he took over; three months later, Laurent, then only 21, designed the fashion house's first collection.

Spurred on by its enthusiastic reception, he became more daring and, in 1960, came up with the Beat Look, inspired by the existentialist philosophers of the cafes of Saint-Germain des Pres.

His rise was briefly interrupted that year when he was conscripted to the French army, and sent to fight in Algeria against the independence movement. Given his fragile mental state, few were surprised when he was discharged less than a year later for nervous depression.

In 1962 he broke away from Dior - while he'd served in the army, Dior had found another designer to replace him - and launched his own line of ready-to-wear clothes. The distinctive YSL logo became synonymous with all the latest trends.

Saint Laurent suffered from depression all his life, and more so after his retirement. Berge was quoted as saying that he had been born with a nervous breakdown, and, after his retirement, the designer admitted to using "those false friends which are tranquilisers and narcotics".

As he bowed out of the business in 2002, he said: "I have nothing in common with this new world of fashion, which has been reduced to mere window dressing. Elegance and beauty have been banished."