First Impressions: Edmonde Charles-Roux on Yves Saint Laurent

'He was an adolescent cut like a giraffe and constantly struggling with huge glasses that kept sliding down his nose. He had a false air of idleness about him. In fact, he was more reserved than timid.'

Edmonde Charles-Roux, Coco Chanel's biographer and former editor of French 'Vogue', was a features editor on 'Vogue' when the 17-year-old Yves Saint Laurent brought in sketches to show Michel de Brunhoff, the director, in 1954, writes Catriona Luke. It was to be Yves Saint Laurent's year. He was hired by 'Vogue' to make illustrations of hairstyles and entered and won the design competition run by the International Wool Secretariat which launched him into couture. A young German by the name of Karl Lagerfeld came second.