The great Yves Saint Laurent, King of the Fashionistas, is dead at 71.
"One of the greatest names of fashion has disappeared, the first to elevate haute couture to the rank of art," said French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Former lover and longtime business partner, Pierre Berge revealed Saint Laurent, fashion icon of the 1960s, died late Sunday of a brain tumor.
Berge told French radio that Saint Laurent had been seriously ill "for a year."
In his later years the depression that had haunted him all his life became more oppressive, and at his retirement in 2002 Saint Laurent admitted to "those false friends which are tranquillizers and narcotics."
