Yves Saint Laurent, one of the greatest forces in fashion history, has died at the age of 71. His career was a testament not only to beauty and to women but also to his tenacity and struggle with disabilities both physical and mental. That he created so much of enduring worth is an eloquent and astonishing legacy, entirely due to his unceasing battle with and sometimes-victory over those challenges, and culture itself has been enriched by his body of work.

Here is some of it: His second collection, from 1962.

I was never a Saint Laurent woman, nor ever will be, but the immaculate, sexy, unattainable, vaguely bondage-inclined goddess is an icon of the Twentieth Century and such women as Catherine Deneuve, Loulou de la Falaise, Gisele Bundchen, and Linda Evangelista owe a large part of their fame to their ability to inspire and collaborate with YSL. Whether he invented the archetype, or whether he simply discovered and dressed it is something for historians to debate. He changed the very possibilities of feminine identity, and he did it always from a perspective of deep respect and love.

The YSL Manifesto. Let his own work stand as his eulogy: