Paris — The fashion world descended Tuesday on the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris for the grand farewell of designer Yves Saint Laurent.
Two thousand guests were invited to the gala event a retrospective but also a final collection and countless more clamored for tickets.
Saint Laurent, 65, stunned the fashion world two weeks ago when he announced he was ending his groundbreaking career, partly in disgust over what he saw as an industry ruled by commercial rather than artistic motives.
"We live in a world of disorder and decadence," the designer said in an interview with Le Monde newspaper published Tuesday. "This struggle for elegance and beauty caused me much distress.
"I no longer felt part of the world."
While Saint Laurent's house of haute couture will close, the name will not disappear. In 1999, he sold the rights to his label, ceding control of his Rive Gauche collection, perfumes including the designer scent Opium cosmetics and accessories to Gucci Group NV in return for $70 million cash and royalties. Since then, Gucci's creative director, Tom Ford, has been in charge of the ready-to-wear collection, fragrances and cosmetics.
The show Tuesday offered a nostalgic look back at Saint Laurent's most influential designs from sleek daytime pantsuits and tuxedos to safari and jungle outfits to the stunning peasant-chic evening wear for the "Ballets Russes" collection. It was also included new items. The 300 or so outfits were all for sale.
It was one of Saint Laurent's hallmarks to put women into pants, including for evening, in such a stunning way that fashionable women who couldn't afford haute couture were grateful for the boost. The women's "smoking," or tuxedo, was introduced in 1966.
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