Paris fashion icon Yves Saint Laurent, 71

Yves Saint Laurent, who exploded on the fashion scene in 1958 as the boy-wonder successor to Christian Dior and endured as one of the best-known and most influential couturiers of the second half of the 20th century, died Sunday in Paris after a long illness. He was 71.

During a career that ran from 1957 to 2002, he was largely responsible for changing the way women dress, putting them into pants both day and night, into peacoats and safari jackets, into leopard prints, trench coats and, for a time, peasant-inspired clothing in rich fabrics.

Mr. Saint Laurent often sought inspiration on the streets, bringing the Parisian beatnik style to couture runways and adapting the sailors' peacoats into jackets that found their way into women's wardrobes around the world. His glamorous evening clothes were often adorned with appliqués and beadwork inspired by artists like Picasso, Miro and Matisse. Above all, he was a master colorist, able to mix green, blue, rose and yellow in one outfit to achieve an effect that was artistic and never garish.

Mr. Saint Laurent achieved instant fame in 1958 at the age of 21 when he showed his Trapeze collection, his first for Christian Dior after the master's death. But unlike many overnight sensations, Mr. Saint Laurent managed to remain at the top as fashion changed from an emphasis on formal, custom-made haute couture to casual sportswear.

Originally a maverick — in 1968, his suggestion that women wear pants as an everyday uniform was considered revolutionary — he developed into a more conservative designer, a believer in evolution rather than revolution. He often said that all a woman needed to be fashionable was a pair of pants, a sweater and a raincoat.

"My small job as a couturier," he once said, "is to make clothes that reflect our times. I'm convinced women want to wear pants."

When Mr. Saint Laurent retired in 2002 at age 65 and closed the Paris-based haute couture house he had founded 40 years earlier, it was mourned in the fashion world as the end of an era. His ready-to-wear label, Rive Gauche, which was sold to Gucci in 1999, still has boutiques around the world.