Yves Saint Laurent (fashion house)

History

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. 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. 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. Saint Laurent's muses included Loulou de La Falaise, Betty Catroux, Talitha Pol-Getty, Catherine Deneuve and Laetitia Casta.

In 1979, interior designers Jed Johnson and Judith Hollander designed the Yves Saint Laurent Enterprises offices in New York with architect Michael Hollander.

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. In 1993, Yves Saint Laurent was sold to pharmaceuticals company Sanofi.

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

In 1999, Kering purchased YSL, Alber Elbaz was dismissed and Tom Ford was hired to design the ready-to-wear collection, while Yves Saint Laurent remained in charge of haute couture. Designs by Tom Ford for YSL were awarded Dress of the Year by the Fashion Museum in 2001 and 2004.

In 2002, the haute couture division was closed. In 2004, Tom Ford departed the company and Stefano Pilati, an Italian-born designer, became creative director. Yves Saint Laurent died of brain cancer in 2008. The following few years proved to be tumultuous for the company, 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.

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 couture line, and proceeded to do so. After his appointment, Slimane moved the design studio to Los Angeles, Slimane's home; the couture atelier would remain in France.

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). "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 Gauches name when it first launched, "Saint Laurent Rive Gauche".

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.

In 2016, Slimane left Saint Laurent and Anthony Vaccarello was appointed creative director. 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. In 2017, Vaccarello chose Charlotte Gainsbourg, daughter of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, as face of the A/W 2017 campaign.hero-magazine.com Charlotte Gainsbourg is the new face of Saint Laurent, ALEX JAMES TAYLOR, 18 MAY 2017 In July 2020, Rosé, a Korean-New Zealand singer-songwriter, was named the first-ever global ambassador of Yves Saint Laurent.

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. 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 projects were David Cronenberg's film The Shrouds, Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope, and Jacques Audiard's Emilia Pérez, for which it received its first Oscar nomination at the 97th Academy Awards in addition to the Jury Prize at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. In November 2024, Cédric Charbit replaced Francesca Bellettini as CEO of Yves Saint Laurent. |File:Yves Saint Laurent Mondrian dress, 1965, exhibited at the Rijksmuseum (cropped).jpg|Hommage à Piet Mondrian, A/W 1965 |File:1968-1970 Yves Saint Laurent designs; (Musée national d'art moderne, Paris).jpg|Silk jumpsuit, A/W 1970; wool dress, A/W 1968; silk dress, A/W 1969 |File:1969 Yves Saint Laurent beaded evening dress.jpg|Beaded silk evening dress, A/W 1969 |File:1971 evening gown by Yves Saint Laurent for Jane Birkin with 1966 Le Smoking suit (musée d'Orsay, Paris).jpg|Evening gown designed for Jane Birkin, 1971 |File:1974 film costume by Yves Saint Laurent for Anny Duperey with 1935 "Les Sports" bas-relief & 1930 vases by Jean Dunand (Musée d'art moderne de Paris).jpg|Designed for Anny Duperey in 1974 film Stavisky |File:1975 Yves Saint Laurent evening dress (musée d'art moderne de Paris).jpg|Evening dress, A/W 1975 |File:Three Yves Saint Laurent dresses inspired by Henri Matisse (musée d'art moderne de Paris).jpg|Inspired by Henri Matisse: S/S 1982; S/S 1970; A/W 1981 |File:1980 Yves Saint Laurent RIve Gauche black satin pantsuit, gold guipure lace trim 01.jpg|Black satin pantsuit, ca. 1980 |File:Yves Saint Laurent et Fernand Léger (Musée national d'art moderne, Paris) - Flickr - dalbera.jpg|Hommage à Fernand Léger, A/W 1981 |File:Toiles de la maison Yves Saint Laurent (Musée Yves Saint Laurent, Paris).jpg|Hommage à Georges Braque, S/S 1988 |File:1988 Yves Saint Laurent Jacket, "Homage to Vincent van Gogh" (Musée Yves Saint Laurent, Paris).jpg|Hommage à Vincent van Gogh, S/S 1988 |File:Yves Saint Laurent et Raoul Dufy (musée d'art moderne de Paris).jpg|A/W 1992 |File:2001 Yves Saint Laurent dresses inspired by Pierre Bonnard, with Bonnard paintings (musée d'art moderne de Paris) - 51867104302.jpg|Dresses inspired by Pierre Bonnard, S/S 2001 |File:Fall 2004 Tom Ford evening dress for Yves Saint Laurent, printed silk 02.jpg|A/W 2004 by Tom Ford, Fashion Museum's Dress of the Year

Governance

CEOs

• 2013–2024: Francesca Bellettini
• Since 2024: Cédric Charbit

Creative directors

• 1998–2000: Alber Elbaz
• 2000–2004: Tom Ford
• 2005–2011: Stefano Pilati
• 2012–2016: Hedi Slimane
• 2016–present: Anthony Vaccarello

Financial results

Advertising and criticism

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". 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. The company was ordered to remove two posters from this campaign by the French Advertising Standards Authority (ARPP), which ruled them "degrading".

In February 2025, Yves Saint Laurent faced controversy in response to the inclusion of Palestinian rapper Saint Levant in a promotional video for an YSL-branded omakase restaurant in Paris, with pro-Israel groups and media calling for a boycott of the brand over Saint Levant's alleged "antisemitism".

Tax evasion

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. 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).

Notes

References

References

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9. Henri Mouron. (1986). "Cassandre : Posters, Typography, Stage Designs". Thames and Hudson.
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33. [http://www.vogue.com/article/yves-saint-laurent-anthony-vaccarello-interview "My Idea of YSL Lies in the Attitude"—Anthony Vaccarello Talks Saint Laurent] ''[[Vogue (magazine). Vogue]]'' September 27, 2016
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36. Socha, Miles. (2023-04-13). "EXCLUSIVE: Saint Laurent Creates Film Production Subsidiary".
37. Ntim, Zac. (2023-04-13). "French Fashion House Saint Laurent Launches Production Banner With Films By Pedro Almodóvar And David Cronenberg".
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43. (2023-06-21). "Warehouse ad showed unhealthily thin model, ASA finds". BBC News.
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46. Thompson, Rachel. (2017-03-07). "People are calling for this 'sexist' and 'degrading' advert to be removed".
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52. (2018-03-19). "Le système Pinault : une évasion à 2,5 milliards d'euros". Mediapart.
53. (2008-06-03). "YSL, trois lettres qui valent de l'or".