Saint Laurent

Yves Saint Laurent is French luxury fashion house founded in 1962 by designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergé. Today the luxury fashion brand markets women's and men's ready-to-wear and accessories, leather goods, shoes and jewellery. The company revived its haute couture collection in 2015 under former Creative Director Hedi Slimane and also has a presence in the beauty and fragrance market. The Saint Laurent label was bought by the Gucci Group in 1999, which would later be bought by Kering.

Let's take a look at the legendary fashion brand's humble beginnings and stratospheric rise to success. Born in 1936 and bred in Algeria- Yves Saint Laurent left for Paris at the age of seventeen. Here, he showed his drawings to Michel de Brunhoff - director of French Vogue - who loved it and published a few of them. She introduced Yves Saint Laurent to Christian Dior on June 20, 1955, and he too was impressed by his talent and hired him as his assistant. After taking over as Art Director for Dior.. Yves Saint Laurent launched his first collection for the company: the Ligne Trapéze. It was a resounding success and won him a Neiman Marcus Oscar. 

Yves Saint Laurent spent two years working alongside Christian Dior.. mastering the art of haute couture from the master himself. Collections comprised of designs that would emerge from sketches, toiles and fittings. Quickly earning Dior's trust, he was given more and more responsibilities. Per MuseeYSLParis: "He taught me the essential" Saint Laurent wrote in 1986. “Then came other influences that, because he had taught me the essential, blended into this essential and found it to be a wonderful and prolific terrain.. the necessary seeds that would allow me to assert myself.. grow strong.. blossom.. and finally exude my own universe.” And he continued to with Dior until his death in 1957. 

In 1962- after completing National Service- Yves Saint Laurent set up his eponymous fashion house with partner Pierre Bergé. In 1966 he introduced "le smoking" his legendary tuxedo for women. It was perhaps his most scandalous creation! Per Vogue: "Before it, pantsuits on whttps://www.vogue.co.uk/article/yves-saint-laurent-biographyomen were still a bit transgressive but in Saint Laurent's fertile imagination, the trouser suit telegraphed a sensuous femininity. And the timing of Le Smoking was perfect: It spoke to the desires of the nervy young woman who was just then gaining access to birth control, political power and an executive career…"

His other creations include the safari jacket, the sheer blouse, the Mondrian shift and the jumpsuit. Some of his collections created dialogues with art by referencing Pop Art, Ballet Russes and Picasso. Saint Laurent gave a second lease of life to silhouettes from the Twenties through to the Forties for the contemporary woman. In fact the late designer is best known for 'inventing the modern woman's wardrobe'. And that's not all! He is credited with initiating shoulder-padded styles that would characterise the Eighties. 

In another radical move… Saint Laurent opened the Rive Gauche prêt-à-porter boutique in 1966 to sell his designs directly to the public. With its own identity and boutique, it was the first mass-produced ready-to-wear line by a French couturier to rival the success of couture. Per The Guardian: "He dressed women in triangular trapeze shapes in the 1950s. In the 1960s he clothed women in blazers, pin-striped trouser suits and smoking jackets, and took risks by turning the workaday parka, the trench coat and the pea coat into haute couture. In the 1970s he dreamed up ethnic prints and put shoulder-padding back into jackets... Before Issey Miyake, he designed moulded metal body masks worn over silk skirts and years before Christian Lacroix and John Galliano introduced peasant costumes and theatre, Saint Laurent sent out collections based on Mongols and Russian Czarinas, North African maidens and Proustian heroines." 

The luxury fashion brand expanded in the Eighties and early Nineties with fragrances, having launched its cosmetic line in 1978. However by 1992 the company's profits were declining and the share price had fallen. In October 1998 Yves Saint Laurent showed his last ready-to-wear collection for the Rive Gauche label he had founded more than thirty years before. 

When Gucci Group stepped in to acquire the financially ailing company in 1999, Tom Ford was given the job of creating ready-to-wear while Saint Laurent remained in charge of haute couture. Increasingly frail, the founder stepped down in 2002, shuttering the couture house and leaving Ford as sole creative director and the luxury fashion brand entered the stratosphere where it remains today with menswear- womenswear- and fragrance. There was some more corporate re-shuffling. When Kering acquired more than 99 percent of Gucci Group in 2004 Tom Ford left and was replaced with Stefano Pilati. 

In 2012, after celebrating its 50th anniversary, the house announced that Pilati would be succeeded by Hedi Slimane, a master of androgyny who had first made his name in menswear. However his tenure was marked by criticism from fashion editor and he was succeeded by Creative Director Anthony Vaccarello. 

Today Yves Saint Laurent is one of the most significant luxury fashion brands under the parent company Kering, contributing significantly to the retail giant's revenue. Vogue applauded Saint Laurent Fall Winter 2023: "Vaccarello's own designing.. his mastery of the house of Saint Laurent is now so complete.. so in sync with its image and iconicity that he doesn't delve into the archives to find his way. Instead he is steered by memory of what has gone before—like detecting the lingering notes of a still fragrant scent—and his own unerring instincts on where the house needs to go next."

Saint Laurent' mission is to empower its patrons through stylish, timeless and desirable products that are simultaneously forward-thinking and elegant.

The Saint Laurent vision is one of modern sartorial refinement, creating apparel that makes the wearer feel confident, worldly and empowered.

The luxury fashion brand acquired by Kering designs and retails women's and men's ready-to-wear and fashion accessories, leather goods, shoes and jewellery.