Yves Saint Laurent dies at age 71.

Yves Saint Laurent, one of the greatest fashion designers in history, died at his home in Paris late Sunday at 71 of brain cancer. The French designer helped define modern fashion and cemented Paris’s status as fashion capital. His signature contributions to fashion included but were not limited to designer denim and the launch of a his fragrance line and beauty business.  

Yves is known for the following quote: “I have often said that I wish I had invented blue jeans: the most spectacular, the most practical, the most relaxed and nonchalant. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity – all I hope for in my clothes.” 

No wonder we love our denim so much – he states the reason perfectly and eloquently.

The Gucci Group, which acquired the Yves Saint Laurent fashion housein 1999, said the designer’s death “leaves a great emptiness but also a sublime inheritance.”  Read the full story of what other designers are saying about YSL’s passing at WWD.com.  He will be missed.