Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent professionally known as Yves Saint-Laurent, was a French fashion designer who, in 1961, founded his eponymous fashion label. He is regarded as being among the foremost fashion designers in the twentieth century.

Yves Saint-Laurent launched its first women’s perfume, Y in 1964. In 1971, the design house unveiled its Rive Gauche perfume; that same year, Jean Loup Sieff photographed Yves in the nude for the advertising campaign of his first men’s cologne Pour Hommes. In 1978, Yves Saint-Laurent Beauty first launched a women’s makeup line with the goal to create a face dressed with a luxurious universe of colors and textures.