YSL muse Marina Schiano dead at 71

Former Yves Saint Laurent muse Marina Schiano has died, aged 71.
The Italian model was discovered by fashion photographer Yasuhiro Wakabayashi in the mid-1960s and became close to Saint Laurent after becoming a fit mannequin at the designer’s atelier.
She appeared in a series of iconic shots for the fashionista, including a black-and-white Jeanloup Sieff photo from 1970, in which she wore a turban and a lace evening dress.
Schiano later fronted YSL’s New York base, and masterminded the launch event for fragrance Opium in 1978.
“Marina Schiano will forever be linked with Yves Saint Laurent as she incarnated his ideal modern women, a working woman confident of herself within the corporate male sphere which she performed for a number of years as president of Yves Saint Laurent North America,” Madison Cox, president of the Fondation Pierre Berge-Yves Saint Laurent says in a statement to WWD.com.
“Her tenacity, spirited enthusiasm and natural chic were qualities both Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge admired in her. The entire equipe of the Fondation Pierre Berge-Yves Saint Laurent join me in extending our deepest condolences to the family.”
Schiano was also briefly married to artist Andy Warhol’s business manager Fred Hughes.
She also ran the communications department at Calvin Klein and served as creative director at Vanity Fair.
Paying tribute to the late model on social media, designer Diane von Furstenberg posted a black and white photo of Marina and added the caption: “Dearest Marina Schiano… so many laughs we had together… you were a beautiful soul… the world will miss you.”
Meanwhile, Valentino Garavani also shared an image of Schiano in one of his designs and added: “A Muse, a special elegance, a great personality! The world will always remember you…”