Kazakhstani supermodel Ruslana Korshunova death apparent suicide

Ruslana Korshunova was born July 2, 1987 and died June 28, 2008. She was a Kazakhstani model. On June 28, 2008 at around 2:30 p.m., Korshunova died after falling from the 9 floor balcony of her apartment at 130 Water Street in Manhattan's Financial District. Police stated there were no signs of a struggle in her apartment and concluded that Korshunova's death is an apparent suicide.
supermodel Ruslana Korshunova runway.
One of her friends stated that Korshunova had just returned from a modeling gig in Paris, noting that she seemed to be "on top of the world" with no apparent reason why she would commit suicide. Korshunova's former boyfriend, Artem Perchenok, said he dropped Korshunova off at her apartment several hours before her death after they watched the Bruce Willis film Ghost together. "She was a good person," he told The New York Post. However, she appeared brokenhearted and angry in some of her postings on a social networking site. Korshunova's most telling message came three months ago: "I'm so lost. Will I ever find myself?"

Ruslana Korshunova was born in Almaty, Kazakh SSR, and was of Russian descent. She spoke fluent Russian, English and German. She was discovered in 2003, when All Asia magazine printed a story on Almaty's local German language club, which Korshunova was then attending. Her photograph, which was featured in the article, caught the attention of Debbie Jones of Models 1, who tracked down and signed up the then 15-year-old Korshunova.Korshunova was represented by IMG (New York, Paris, London and Milan), Beatrice (Milan), Traffic Models (Barcelona), Marilyn Models and iCasting Moscow, which was her mother agency. Korshunova modeled for the covers of Elle (France), Vogue (Poland) and Vogue (Russia). She also modeled in print-ads for Blugirl by Blumarine, Clarins, Ghost, Girbaud, Kenzo Accessories, Marithé & François, Max Studio, Moschino, Old England, Pantene Always Smooth, Paul Smith and Vera Wang lingerie.

French fashion designer died Yves Saint Laurent biography

Yves Henri Donat Mathieu Saint Laurent (aged 71)
was born August 1, 1936 and died June 1, 2008.

He was a French pied noir fashion designer, and was considered among the greatest of the 20th century. In 1985, in his book, Couture: The Great Fashion Designers, Caroline Rennolds Milbank wrote, "The most consistently celebrated and influential designer of the past twenty-five years, Yves Saint Laurent can be credited with both spurring the couture's rise from its Sixties ashes and with finally rendering ready-to-wear reputable".The son of an insurance company president, Yves Saint Laurent was born on August 1, 1936 in Oran, in what was then French Algeria. Saint Laurent left home at the age of 17 to work for the French designer Christian Dior. Following Dior's death in 1957, Yves, at the age of 22, was put in charge of the effort of saving the Dior house from financial ruin. Shortly after this success, he was conscripted to serve in the French army during the Algerian War of Independence. After 20 days, the stress of being hazed by fellow soldiers, led the fragile Saint Laurent to be institutionalized in a French mental hospital, where he underwent psychiatric treatment, including electroshock therapy, for a nervous breakdown.
In 1962, in the wake of his nervous breakdown, Saint Laurent was released from Dior and started his own label, YSL, financed by his companion, Pierre Bergé. The couple split romantically in 1976 but remained business partners. During the 1960s and 1970s, the firm popularized fashion trends such as the beatnik look, safari jackets for men and women, tight pants and tall, thigh-high boots, including the creation of arguably the most famous classic tuxedo suit for women in 1966, Le Smoking suit. He also started mainstreaming the idea of wearing silhouettes from the 1920s, '30s and '40s. He was the first, in 1966, to popularize ready-to-wear in an attempt to democratize fashion, with Rive Gauche and the boutique of the same name. He was also the first designer to use black models in his runway shows. Among his muses were Loulou de la Falaise, the daughter of a French marquis and an Anglo-Irish fashion model; Betty Catroux, the half-Brazilian daughter of an American diplomat and wife of a French decorator; Talitha Pol-Getty, who died of drug overdose in 1971; Catherine Deneuve, the iconic French actress; and the Guinean-born Senegalese supermodel Katoucha Niane, the daughter of writer Djibril Tamsir Niane. Ambassador to the couturier during the late 1970s and early 80s was London socialite millionairess Diane Boulting-Casserley Vandelli, making the brand ever more popular amongst the European jet-set and upper classes.
Nicole Richie gowns by Yves Saint Laurent.
In 1983, he became the first living fashion designer to be honored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2001, he was awarded the rank of Commander of the Légion d'Honneur by French president Jacques Chirac. Saint Laurent retired in 2002 and became increasingly reclusive. From then until his death he spent much of his time at his house in Marrakech, Morocco.
He also created a foundation with Pierre Bergé in Paris to trace the history of the house of YSL, complete with 15,000 objects and 5,000 pieces of clothing.
He died on June 1, 2008, at home in Paris after a year-long fight against brain cancer.
YSL fall/winter 2007/08 backstage (fashion inside)