YSL first to make haute couture into art: Sarkozy

PARIS, June 2, 2008 (AFP) - With the death Sunday June the 1st of designer Yves Saint Laurent the fashion world has lost one of its greatest names, said French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Saint Laurent "was the first to elevate haute couture to the rank of art and that gave him global influence," Sarkozy said in a statement released on Monday.

"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."

Saint Laurent, widely hailed as one of the greatest designers of the 20th century, died Sunday in Paris aged 71, announced his foundation, the Pierre-Berge-Saint Laurent Foundation.

The reclusive French maestro, who retired from haute couture in 2002 after four decades at the top of his trade, had been ill for some time.

French Culture Minister Christine Albanel said that with Saint Laurent's passing the world had lost "the elegant accomplice of our daily lives ... the symbol of luxury and beauty the world over."

"From his first creations he remained provocative and free, dedicated to liberating women and stamping fashion into the times, the street, into life, creating for this his own ready-to-wear label and breaking the rules of the game of haute couture," she said in a statement.