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Saint Laurent was "one of the great minds of twentieth-century fashion."
—Hess, Paris 48
Yves Saint Laurent (1936–2008)—considered "the most brilliant designer of his generation" (Steele 249)—"created haute couture and prêt-à-porter that would shape Paris Fashion" (Hess, Paris 48). Saint Laurent's impact upon the world of fashion and the fashion industry in Paris and around the world is undeniable. Among Saint Laurent's invaluable contributions to the world of fashion is how he "championed diversity" (Rogers) in fashion. Although "the fashion industry's problem with race remains […] Saint Laurent was among the first designers to put women of color on the runway. Iman, Rebecca Ayoko, Katoucha Niane, and Dalma Callado were among his muses and regular models" (Rogers). Mounia "was not only one of the top Black models in the late 1970s [but] was designer Yves Saint Laurent's greatest inspiration" (Essence) and "was widely considered the French couturier's favorite model" (Sulmers). In 1988, Naomi Campbell "became the first Black model to grace the cover of Paris Vogue—but only after Yves Saint Laurent threatened to withdraw his advertising after it refused to place Campbell, or any Black model, on the pages" of the magazine (Essence).
Vanessa Friedman of the New York Times considers Saint Laurent to have "changed the color of couture":
[M]any of the issues currently front and center—not just in fashion but also in the wider conversation about the social contract—were causes that [Saint Laurent] championed. In fact, he never saw them as causes per se, but rather as simply part of the definition of what it meant to be modern. Diversity? Saint Laurent was among the first designers to embrace Black models on the runway. [End Page 99]
As "one of the first haute couture designers to work with a diverse range of models," Saint Laurent "featured the first Black model on a high-fashion runway and continued to feature women of color in his fashion shows for the rest of his career" (Seattle Art Museum). Saint Laurent welcomed and supported diversity in fashion, which is one of the many aspects of the fashion industry that he impacted and influenced with his visionary thinking.
Saint Laurent, as "one of the first designers to use fine art in his work with his famous Mondrian collection"...