Aristocracy of fashion mourns Yves Saint Laurent

The aristocracy of the international fashion world gathered in Paris yesterday to pay their last respects to the French couturier Yves Saint Laurent.

Hundreds of people choked the narrow street outside the Église Saint-Roch, the church of "artists", to follow the funeral service on a giant screen.

The actress Catherine Deneuve, a close friend of the fashion designer, gave a reading. His life-long lover and business partner, Pierre Bergé, said Saint Laurent's designs had influenced the way the whole world – and not just dedicated followers of fashion – dressed. "You could have slid into what was fashionable but instead you remained faithful to your own style, and you were quite right," M. Bergé said. "That style is now everywhere, not necessarily in fashion, but on every street in the entire world."

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Saint Laurent, who died of a brain tumour on Sunday at the age of 71, was the first couturier to embrace, among other things, the trouser suit, the leather jacket, the safari suit, the see-through blouse and, most famously of all, the dinner jacket for women.

In pictures: The famous five - Yves Saint Laurent's greatest looks

He was the last of a line of French designers, including Coco Chanel and his mentor, Christian Dior, who established Paris as the fashion capital of the world. His death, after a life scarred by struggles against drugs, alcohol and depression, has provoked an outpouring of national grief. Le Monde newspaper said France had lost not just a great fashion designer but "one of its greatest artists".

In pictures: The famous five - Yves Saint Laurent's greatest looks

Many other senior figures from the fashion world attended the service, including Kenzo Takada, Hubert de Givenchy, John Galliano, Christian Lacroix, Vivienne Westwood, Jean Paul Gaultier and Valentino Garavani. The French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, attended with his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, herself a former model.

The crowd outside the church applauded when Saint Laurent's dark oak coffin arrived. Other guests included Farah Diba, the widow of the last Shah of Iran, the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy and his wife, the actress and singer Arielle Dombasle, and the former French first lady Bernadette Chirac.