YVES Saint Laurent, one the top French designers of the 20th century, died on Sunday evening in Paris, the Pierre-Berg-Saint Laurent Foundation said today.

The reclusive French maestro, who had retired from haute couture in 2002 after four decades at the top of his trade, had been ill for some time. He was 71.

Yves Henri Donat Mathieu Saint Laurent was born in the coastal town of Oran, Algeria, on August 1, 1936, at a time when the North African country was still considered part of France.

After taking over the Christian Dior fashion house following the death of its founder in 1957, Saint Laurent founded his own company in the early 1960s.

He made his own name on the back of the rise of the youth market and pop culture, fuelled by the economic boom of that decade, when women suddenly had more economic freedom.