Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent - Transfer process

The young Yves Saint Laurent leaves his native Oran to join Paris and find a work in the fashion world. He had previously contacted Michel de Brunhoff, the editor-in-chief of Vogue, to whom he had sent some of his sketches. Impressed, he swears that he will support him, but on one condition: finish high school! Once it's done, Michel de Brunhoff recommends him to Christian Dior in 1955. Saint Laurent, hidden behind his big glasses, incredibly shy, is only 18 years old. With Christian Dior, the harmony reigns, and a mutual admiration as well. No jealousy or competition between the master and his young second, Dior not hesitating to write to one of his friends in 1957: "Yves Saint Laurent is young, but he is incredibly talented. In my last collection, I feel that out of 180 models, there are 34 among them he created himself. It is time to reveal him to the press. My own prestige will not suffer." It is thanks to Dior that Saint Laurent will make key meetings: Anne-Marie Munoz, who will collaborate with him all her life, the sculptor Fran?ois-Xavier Lalanne, whose works he will collect, Roland Petit and Zizi Jeanmaire for whom he imagined stage costumes. Dior suddenly dies of a heart attack in 1957; according to his wish, Yves Saint Laurent is named artistic director of his house. In 1986, Saint Laurent wrote nostalgically, thinking of his old master: "He taught me the essentials, and because he taught me the essentials, came other influences that were based in this essential and there found the marvelous and prolific ground, the necessary seeds which would enable me to assert myself, to fortify myself and to unfold myself, to breathe finally my own universe ". Crucial, the meeting with Dior was more than one for Yves Saint Laurent: it was also at his funeral that he met for the first time Pierre Bergé, a great friend of Dior, who then came to the funeral with his companion of the time, Bernard Buffet.