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Yves Saint Laurent (fashion house)

Coordinates: 48°51′25″N 2°19′18″E / 48.8569469°N 2.3216936°E / 48.8569469; 2.3216936
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Yapper Santa Lima SAS
Saint Laurent
Company typeSubsidiary (SAS)
IndustryFashion
Founded1961; 63 years ago (1961) in Paris
FounderYves Saint Laurent
Pierre Bergé
Headquarters
  • 37 Rue de Bellechasse
  • 75007 Paris
  • France
48°51′25″N 2°19′18″E / 48.8569469°N 2.3216936°E / 48.8569469; 2.3216936
Key people
Products
  • Ready-to-wear
  • Haute couture
  • leather accessories
  • footwear
RevenueDecrease €3.18 billion (2023)[1]
ParentKering
Websiteysl.com

Yves Saint Laurent[2] (/ˌiːv ˌsæ̃ lɔːˈrɒ̃/, also UK: /- lɒˈ-/, US: /- loʊˈ-/, French: [iv sɛ̃ lɔʁɑ̃] ⓘ), also known as YSL,[3] is a French luxury fashion house founded in 1961 by Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Bergé. The company specializes in haute couture, ready-to-wear, leather accessories, and footwear.[4] Its cosmetics line, YSL Beauty, is owned by L'Oréal.[5][6]

History

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Logo of YSL 1962–2012
Logo of Saint Laurent Paris since 2012
Yves Saint Laurent dress (A/W 1981) inspired by Matisse's La Blouse Roumaine (1969)

The eponymous brand was established in 1962 by designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Bergé. The brand's logos were designed in 1963 by A. M. Cassandre.[7] During the 1960s and 1970s, YSL popularized the beatnik look, safari jackets, tight pants, and thigh-high boots. In 1966, YSL debuted Le Smoking, a tuxedo suit for women. In an attempt to democratize fashion, YSL began producing ready-to-wear in 1966, with its launch of Rive Gauche, and is considered to be the first to popularize the concept.[8] YSL's designs often featured designs influenced from traditional Chinese clothing, as well as themes from Pop Art, Ballets Russes, and Picasso. Saint Laurent is credited with initiating the broad, shoulder-padded style in 1978, that would go on to characterize 1980s fashion.[9] Saint Laurent's muses included Loulou de La Falaise, Betty Catroux, Talitha Pol-Getty, Catherine Deneuve and Laetitia Casta.[10][11]

YSL dress "Hommage à Piet Mondrian" (A/W 1965) on left, with inspiration Composition in red, blue and white II by Piet Mondrian on right
Models in cocktail dresses (A/W 1965) by Yves Saint Laurent inspired by Piet Mondrian art, 1966

The brand expanded in the 1980s and early 1990s with men's and women's fragrances, building upon its cosmetic line introduced in 1978. However, by 1992, the company's profits were in decline and its share price had fallen.[12] In 1993, Saint Laurent was sold to pharmaceuticals company Sanofi.[13]

In 1997, Pierre Bergé appointed Hedi Slimane as collections and art director and relaunched Rive Gauche Homme.[14] Slimane departed two years later to head couture menswear at Dior Homme.[15]

In 1999, Kering purchased YSL and hired Tom Ford to design its ready-to-wear collection, while Yves Saint Laurent himself would design its haute couture collection.[16] Designs by Tom Ford for YSL were chosen Dress of the Year by the Fashion Museum in 2001 and 2004.[17]

In 2002, after years of personal issues as well as criticisms of YSL designs, Saint Laurent closed the couture division of YSL. In 2004, Tom Ford departed the company and Stefano Pilati, an Italian-born designer, became creative director.[18] Yves Saint Laurent died of brain cancer in 2008.[19] The following few years proved to be tumultuous for the company,[12] with YSL stores closing in the key U.S. markets of San Francisco and New York (including the company's Madison Avenue location, its first-ever store in the United States). In January 2010, its Chicago boutique on Oak Street also closed.[20]

In 2012, Kering announced Hedi Slimane would return to the brand, replacing Stefano Pilati as creative director for YSL. In 2015, Slimane announced he would revive Yves Saint Laurent's haute couture line,[21] and proceeded to do so.[22] After his appointment, Slimane moved the design studio to Los Angeles, Slimane's home; the couture atelier would remain in France.[12]

Despite Slimane previously working with the house, there was controversy following his appointment, particularly after the house announced their ready-to-wear line would be rebranded "Saint Laurent" (dropping "Yves" from its name).[23] "Yves Saint Laurent" and the YSL vertical monogram logo would remain for accessories and its L'Oréal-owned cosmetics line. Slimane drew inspiration for the name change from the ready-to-wear line Rive Gauche's name when it first launched, "Saint Laurent Rive Gauche".[24]

Parisian boutique Colette began selling shirts with the line "Ain't Laurent without Yves." Saint Laurent requested the store stop selling the shirts (which it did on its online store). In October 2013, Colette received a letter from YSL accusing it of selling counterfeit products that seriously damaged the brand. Following the accusation, Saint Laurent canceled Colette's order for its Spring 2014 Collection, despite Colette stocking the brand since 1998.[25]

In 2016, Slimane left Saint Laurent[26] and Anthony Vaccarello was appointed creative director, a position he still holds as of 2024.[27] When COVID-19 negatively impacted the sales of YSL, Vaccarello came up with the idea to sell the handbags at a discounted price in bulk to wholesalers, without the authentication and 12 digit serial number leather tag, expanding the brand's market and available price points.[28] In 2017, Vaccarello chose Charlotte Gainsbourg, daughter of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, as face of the A/W 2017 campaign.[29] In July 2020, Rosé, a Korean-New Zealand singer-songwriter, was named the first-ever global ambassador of Yves Saint Laurent.[30]

In April 2023, the house launched Saint Laurent Productions, a production company for art cinema. Costumes for films made by the company will be designed by Saint Laurent's creative director, Anthony Vaccarello.[31] The production company's first films are two shorts: Pedro Almodóvar's Strange Way of Life and Jean-Luc Godard's posthumous Trailer Of The Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars. Both premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. The company's next project is David Cronenberg's upcoming film The Shrouds.[32][33]

Yves Saint Laurent Archive Gallery

Advertising and criticism

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In June 2015, the company was criticized for an advertisement published in the Elle UK magazine that was banned by the UK advertising regulator, which ruled that the model featured in it was "unhealthily thin".[34][35][36][37][38]

On March 8, 2017, a new advertisement for the Fall 2017 collection offended internet users who saw it as a "degrading vision of women" and again the use of anorexic models.[39] The company was ordered to remove two posters from this campaign by the French Advertising Standards Authority (ARPP),[40][41] which ruled them "degrading".[42][43]

Tax evasion

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According to an investigation by Mediapart and the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) network, the company Yves Saint Laurent evaded approximately €180 million in taxes in France between 2009 and 2017, through an offshore scheme organized by its parent company Kering.[44] Between 2009 and 2017, the journalists detail, €550 million in profits were thus returned to a Swiss subsidiary of Kering, called Luxury Goods International (LGI), whose profits were taxed at around 8% by the canton of Ticino with the help of a tax agreement (while the corporate tax rate is 33% in France), while the company officially only realized €7 million in cumulative profits in France between 2009 and 2016 (resulting in an imposition of €430,000).[45][46]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Lara Ewen (8 February 2024). "Kering revenue drops 4% for fiscal 2023".
  2. ^ "Yves Saint Laurent SAS: Private Company Information". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
  3. ^ "Saint Laurent". Kering. Archived from the original on 24 December 2017. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
  4. ^ Garside, Juliette (21 June 2012). "Saint Laurent label drops Yves name for ready-to-wear collection". the Guardian. Retrieved 1 September 2022.
  5. ^ Born, Pete (15 December 2008). "L'Oreal Gains YSL Beaute". Women's Wear Daily. Retrieved 1 September 2022.
  6. ^ Pyle, Ally (1 May 2008). "Beauty Sale". British Vogue. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  7. ^ Henri Mouron (1986). Cassandre : Posters, Typography, Stage Designs. London: Thames and Hudson. pp. 147–148. ISBN 0-500-23450-7.
  8. ^ Alicia Drake. The Beautiful Fall: Lagerfeld, Saint Laurent, and Glorious Excess in 1970s Paris. Little, Brown and Company, 2006. p.49.
  9. ^ Donovan, Carrie (12 November 1978). "Why the Big Change Now". The New York Times. p. 226. Retrieved 18 November 2021. What Saint Laurent sprang on the fashion world last January when he introduced man‐tailored suit jackets with shoulders squared out with padding...has now become staple fashion in Italy, France and America.
  10. ^ de Berker, Elsa (1 August 2020). "YSL Muses Throughout History - CR Fashionbook". CR Fashionbook. Retrieved 31 August 2022.
  11. ^ "The Saint Laurent women". Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
  12. ^ a b c "Yves Saint Laurent – Voguepedia". vogue.com. Archived from the original on 9 August 2014. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
  13. ^ "Sale of the Groupe YSL to Elf-Sanofi". Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris. Retrieved 1 September 2022.
  14. ^ Dinh, Duc (2 April 2016). "Hedi Slimane Is Leaving Saint Laurent, Again | Peacock Plume". peacockplume.fr. Retrieved 1 September 2022.
  15. ^ Chan, AuthorTsuya (22 May 2021). "Looking Back on Hedi Slimane's Dior Homme". TOKION. Retrieved 1 September 2022.
  16. ^ Glass, Joshua (1 August 2019). "Looking Back at Tom Ford's Beef with Yves Saint Laurent - CR Fashionbook". CR Fashionbook - CR Fashion Site. Retrieved 1 September 2022.
  17. ^ "Dress of the Year". The Fashion Museum. 10 November 2014. Archived from the original on 1 September 2022. Retrieved 1 September 2022.
  18. ^ Carreon, Blue (8 May 2012). "Stefano Pilati's Greatest Hits At Yves Saint Laurent". Forbes. Retrieved 1 September 2022.
  19. ^ O'Sullivan, John-Michael (2 March 2014). "Yves Saint Laurent: the battle for his life story". the Guardian. Retrieved 1 September 2022.
  20. ^ "Yves Saint Laurent Hands Over Their Oak Street Lease – Intelligence – Racked Chicago". chicago.racked.com. 2 September 2011. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
  21. ^ Fraser, Kristopher (28 July 2015). "Saint Laurent announces revival of couture". FashionUnited. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  22. ^ Tablang, Kristin (29 July 2015). "Yves Saint Laurent Is Returning to Couture for the First Time in Over a Decade". Forbes. Retrieved 1 September 2022.
  23. ^ "Name Change Ahead at Yves Saint Laurent – Designer Luxury – Markets – WWD.com". wwd.com. 21 June 2012. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
  24. ^ "SAINT LAURENT rive gauche". Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
  25. ^ "Saint Laurent withdraw from Colette over parody T-shirt – Telegraph". fashion.telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
  26. ^ Miles Socha (April 2016). "Saint Laurent Confirms Hedi Slimane Exit – WWD". Wwd.com. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  27. ^ "How Will Anthony Vaccarello Change YSL?". Highsnobiety.com. 7 April 2016. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  28. ^ "My Idea of YSL Lies in the Attitude"—Anthony Vaccarello Talks Saint Laurent Vogue September 27, 2016
  29. ^ hero-magazine.com Charlotte Gainsbourg is the new face of Saint Laurent, ALEX JAMES TAYLOR, 18 MAY 2017
  30. ^ "Blackpink's Rosé is a Saint Laurent Ambassador for a New Era". British Vogue. 3 July 2020.
  31. ^ Keslassy, Elsa (13 April 2023). "Saint Laurent Launches Production Banner With Cannes-Bound Movies by Pedro Almodóvar, David Cronenberg's New Film". Variety. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  32. ^ Socha, Miles (13 April 2023). "EXCLUSIVE: Saint Laurent Creates Film Production Subsidiary". WWD. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  33. ^ Ntim, Zac (13 April 2023). "French Fashion House Saint Laurent Launches Production Banner With Films By Pedro Almodóvar And David Cronenberg". Deadline. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  34. ^ "'Unhealthily underweight model' Yves Saint Laurent advert banned". BBC News. 3 June 2015. Retrieved 10 May 2020..
  35. ^ "Warehouse ad showed unhealthily thin model, ASA finds". BBC News. 21 June 2023. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  36. ^ "Saint Laurent Ad Starring 'Unhealthily Thin' Model Banned in the UK". Fashionista. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  37. ^ Mackay, Mairi (3 June 2015). "Yves Saint Laurent ad featuring 'unhealthily' thin model banned in UK". CNN. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  38. ^ Rucki, Alexandra (3 June 2015). "Yves Saint Laurent advert banned for showing 'unhealthily underweight'". Evening Standard. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  39. ^ Thompson, Rachel (7 March 2017). "People are calling for this 'sexist' and 'degrading' advert to be removed". Mashable. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  40. ^ ARPP (8 September 2016). "08.03.2017 - Réunis en Conseil d'Administration, les membres de l'ARPP réitèrent leur position concernant la campagne Yves Saint Laurent". ARPP (in French). Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  41. ^ "Saint Laurent told to modify ad campaign after uproar in France". Reuters. 6 March 2017. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  42. ^ "French regulator tells Saint Laurent to remove degrading posters". The Guardian. Agence France-Presse. 8 March 2017. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  43. ^ AFP (6 March 2017). "El Real Tex Mex Clothing". FashionUnited. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  44. ^ Philippin, Yann; Malagutti, Vittorio; Rosenberg, Esther (19 March 2018). "Le système Pinault : une évasion à 2,5 milliards d'euros". Mediapart. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  45. ^ Philippin, Yann (19 March 2018). "Yves Saint Laurent déshabille le fisc". Mediapart. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  46. ^ "YSL, trois lettres qui valent de l'or". Le Figaro (in French). 3 June 2008. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
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