Yves Saint-Laurent

Photo Mosaic

Yves Saint-Laurent was born to shine, and quite literally so: his Sun sat in Leo, its own domicile, at full royal strength, the lion-king at the centre of the solar system whom everyone else orbits. This is the Sun of creative self-expression, drama, generosity and the born celebrity-brand, and few designers ever wore that light more completely. Yet that regal Sun falls in the sixth house of craft, work and daily discipline, and here the king becomes the tireless perfectionist of the atelier: the one for whom shining and working are one and the same. It is a fitting signature for the man who founded his eponymous label in 1962 and rescued couture from its own ashes.

His Moon in Capricorn tells of a cooler, more reserved emotional world, the dutiful, hard-working psyche that grew up fast and channelled feeling into mastery. Placed in the eleventh house of community, tribe and highest wishes, it bound his inner life to the wider world he dressed. An Aquarius Ascendant completed him: the eccentric, boundary-breaking mask of the trendsetter, the black sheep among black sheep. He gave women Le Smoking, brought in non-European references and diverse models, and remains among the foremost designers of the twentieth century.