>> Over 800 mourners paid tribute to Yves Saint Laurent, who passed away on Sunday after a year-long battle with brain cancer.

Applause erupted from the hundreds of onlookers as the designer's coffin was carried into the Eglise Saint-Roch for the funeral mass. A string quartet played as invited guests took their seats in a church decorated with jasmine and white lilies.

During services, former YSL muse Catherine Deneuve, visibly moved, gave a reading from a Walt Whitman poem, followed by a eulogy from Pierre Berge, Saint Laurent's former lover and long-time business partner: "He turned fashion on its head, making it socially relevant rather than merely aesthetic. With Saint Laurent, women ceased being merely clothes-horses or the objects of designer fantasies."

As expected, a number of fashion figures attended — John Galliano, Christian Lacroix, Claudia Schiffer, Laetitia Casta — but noticeably absent was rival Karl Lagerfeld, who according to a Chanel spokesperson was "away on business." Most of the women attendees were dressed in pants suits, in tribute to the designer's reputation as the man who put women in pants.

Yves Saint Laurent's body will be cremated and then scattered in the Majorelle Gardens in Morocco, where he spent much of his life. A short video of the services is here.
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