The couturier Christian Dior, best remembered for his very first collection—shown in 1947 and christened the “New Look”—died suddenly of a heart attack in 1957. He was only 52. “It was a national event,” his friend Pierre Bergé wrote of the funeral. “It was as if France had ceased to live.” Still, there was the question of succession. Yves Saint Laurent, only 21, had worked closely with Dior for two years and it was known that he was Dior’s choice for the job. Saint Laurent proved himself with his first collection, a leap that he called “Trapeze,” for its airy, flaring lines. But Saint Laurent was too much of his own time—the 60s—too daring for Dior’s regal clientele. Four years later, in 1962, he founded his own house, spurring “couture’s rise from the ashes,” as Caroline Milbank has written. This is his first retrospective in Japan. —Elena Clavarino