Yves Saint Laurent, who died at his home in Paris on Sunday after a long illness, was a revolutionary to many.

The impact of his 44 year career on the fashion industry has been tremendous.

With contributions that ranged from the pea coat, pants suit, peasant blouse, he opened doors to new forms of global style. He elevated haute couture to "the rank of art," as French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday.

Saint Laurent's dramatic collections included the safari, bohemian and ballet and set fashion codes that continue to be copied on the racks and the street.

He laid the groundwork for this spring's clothing-as-canvas trend, which has even trickled down to the Gap, when he married fine art and fashion with his famous 1965 Mondrian shift dress.

"Yves not only had great intuition about fashion but was also a great businessman," said Tom Ford, who designed the YSL ready-to-wear line from 2000 to 2004.

He "pioneered the structure of the contemporary fashion house when they introduced ready-to-wear and licensed products. Contrary to the image that Yves created about himself, I always found him to be very quick when it came to business and to have a kind of intuitive compass that always led him in the right direction."

"He gave women the power to be themselves through clothing," said Diane Charbonneau, co-curator of "Yves Saint Laurent," a retrospective that runs through Sept. 28 at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, before moving to the de Young Museum in San Francisco in November.

Saint Laurent retired from haute couture in 2002 with these words: "I have nothing in common with this new world of fashion."