Summer 2020
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Yves Saint Laurent is one of the most well known fashion designers with a globally recognized fashion house. This French luxury fashion brand specializes in women’s and men’s ready-to-wear collections. In the brand’s 59-year life, it experienced a few different creative directors, although with varying aesthetic visions, all brought the house to its success today.
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Yves had an interest in fashion at a young age. He often dealt with kids in school that made fun of him for his sexuality. So, he turned to fashion and created an imaginary fashion house, titles Yves Mathieu Saint Laurent haute couture, with models cut out of his mother’s magazines dressed in his paper designs.
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His early success began after winning three of the International Wool Secretariat Prize categories, one year later in 1955, he was hired by Christian Dior and became the creative director of Dior’s brand after his death. Yves Saint Laurent started out with an extremely successful first collection.
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He set himself apart from Christian Dior. His first iconic design was Trapeze dress, in which he created a more fluid silhouette with the body disappearing underneath, instead of Dior’s signature cinched waist detail. Saint Laurent made his mark and changed the course of fashion.
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However, future Dior collections did not sell well, as they were pitched to a younger audience that Dior did not have at the time. After going through a nervous breakdown as a result of the intense media and other personal factors, Saint Laurent and his long-time lover, and business partner, Pierre Bergé founded Yves Saint Laurent’s eponymous company in 1961.
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With the freedom of his own brand, Yves Saint Laurent used his imagination and his deeply felt opinions on how the modern woman should dress, to go forth with his vision for what his brand will look like. His ready-to-wear line, Rive Gauche reflected the needs of a street style and the approach to individuality, sexual freedom, and the growth of female power and self esteem.
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In 1962, Yves Saint Lauren showed his first collection, which was epitomized by the first piece presented: a pea coat paired with white trousers. Since it was not fitted and covered the hips it was ideal for women who did not yet feel daring enough to wear pants, which accentuated the female form.
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1966 marked the start of the sexual revolution and the female body was gradually revealed. In this year Yves Saint Laurent’s designs made the female chest visible with his first sheer look, which he subtly covered with see-through cigaline. In 1968, he designed a completely transparent chiffon dress with a belt made of ostrich feathers, furthering the “nude” look.
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Yves Saint Laurent’s approach to womenswear was unlike any other designer at the time as he focused heavily on adapting the masculine wardrobe. In his Autumn-Winter 1966 collection he introduced his most iconic piece: a black tailored tuxedo with a satin side stripe, worn with a white ruffled shirt. He called the look ‘Le Smoking’.
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When the garment debuted, it was still controversial for women to wear trousers in public. Le Smoking symbolized a garment of rebellion, of androgyny, glamor, and a challenge to the status quo, which was exactly the goal of Yves Saint Laurent when creating all of his other pieces.
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The Saint Laurent brand we know now was transformed by the hiring of Hedi Slimane as creative director in 2012. He dropped the “Yves” and renamed the brand “Saint Laurent Paris,” subsequently beginning an elegant and clever rebranding of the fashion house. The move to a more subtly branded strategy shows Silmane’s understanding of current luxury industry trends.
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In the first three years under Slimane’s creative direction, the brand more than doubled annual sales revenue from 2011 to 2014. The focus of this success remains on the product line that appeals to a wide demographic. All categories are desirable and over performing, and ready-to-wear was the fastest growing of any category.
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Slimane’s approach to ready-to-wear was a huge factor in the financial success of the company, which reversed the idea that clothing made for the runway is less about sales and more about image. He sends basic items such as tailored jackets, bikers, bombers, denims, which are rare in the current market.
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Slimane’s fashion shows always exuded nowness and newness, with a 50-look collection filled with on-trend pieces that were wearable, sellable, and aesthetically consistent. Each of his collections was an exploration of a musical subculture, from glam-rock, to psych-rock and LA grunge.
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The brand was able to roll out a “permanent collection,” which includes biker jackets, baby doll dresses, pussy bows, skinny jeans, hoodies, and more that are always available, season after season. A 2014 report revealed that overall growth was driven by the success of both permanent lines and new introductions across categories.
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The Saint Laurent brand is able to exemplify the essence of luxury. Consumers not only buy luxury goods for their style, quality and durability, but also for their timeless nature. The brand offers value for their customers’ money, with classic “investment pieces” that will never go out of style.
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With Anthony Vaccarello’s recent appointment as creative director of Saint Laurent, The latest financial results reveal Saint Laurent’s yield has risen to €2.05bn. It’s the first time the company has exceeded the €2bn milestone, securing its status as one of the bestselling brands in luxury fashion globally.
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Most recently, Vaccarello’s ad campaign on Instagram features John Waters, Lenny Kravitz, and BLACKPINK’s Rosé as global faces of Saint Laurent’s fall 2020 collection. Photographed by David Sims, the stars are featured in a series of black and white photographs as well as individual video campaigns.
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Aesthetically, Vaccarello’s direction at Saint Laurent has been an evolution by eliminating Slimane’s neo-grunge styling. He has introduced more glamor, sexuality, and leather and gave an emphasis to using couture techniques, such as elaborate embroidery and featherwork.
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Vaccarello said “I always felt that Saint Laurent was the cool brand, but maybe not the big brand. For me it was important to put that house at the same level of those.” It is evident today that Vaccarello achieved this goal and has pushed the brand to its largest financial and creative success.
