Philosophy
Yves Saint Laurent is a luxury fashion house founded by Yves Saint Laurent and his business and life partner, Pierre Bergè in 1962, revolutioning the fashion system thanks to his style made of formal rigor, exotic fabrics and color mixes.
Inspired by art, ballett and foreign cultures, the algerian-born designer became famous for many different style innovations, result of a contamination of classic menswear elements in the female wardrobe as symbol of emancipation and seduction: the women’s tuxyedo, the military trench coat, the shirt dress, the iconic Mondrian dress, “ethnic-inspired” and beatnik gear and other sartorial creations that have penetrated our collective style-unconscious.
Saint Laurent was also the first couturier to market and cultivate a prêt-a-porter line Rive Gauche between the 70’ s and 80’s, and he was among the first to feature black models on the runway.
The avant-garde fashion house, refined and resolute, has always captured the desire of women to be modern and free, playing, with taste and creativity, a distinctive French seductive style.
Yves designed the couture collection until his retirement in 2002; Rive Gauche was designed by Alber Elbaz for three seasons starting in 1998, and then by Creative Director Tom Ford, with his sex appeal and provocative marketing.
After his departure in 2004, Stefano Pilati, whose style was more in line with that of the late Monsieur Saint Laurent, was named new Creative Director. In February 2012 it was announced that Hedi Slimane would replace Pilati. After his appointment Slimane made the decision to rename the ready-to-wear line Saint Laurent Paris.
Slimane makes an aesthetic revolution but staying true to the original essence, reinterpreting tuxedos, the micro animalier, bermuda shorts, bows, transparencies, the nude look, long skirts, leather, djellabas and man's jacket, turning it into an ultra-slim appendage of the female body, creating, once again, collections which prove how the Yves’ fashion is still very current and trendy.
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