After months of ailing health, legendary fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent died Sunday evening at his Paris home. His long-time partner Pierre Bergé was at his side. He is credited with being the first designer to use Black models in his runway show and one of his most famous muses was model Katoucha, who passed away earlier this year. Unfortunately the label's current fashion director, Stefano Pilati, doesn't share the founders vision. When asked about the lack of black models working YSL shows, he remarked:
"To me, it is a matter of proportions and the bodies I choose. My fit model was a black model," he says. "When I wanted to translate what I put on her, it was a disaster. It would need 13 times more work in the atelier to modify it to put on a more Caucasian anatomy."
Yves Saint Laurent was 71 at the time of his death. May he rest in peace.