Yves Saint Laurent (brand)
Encyclopedia
Yves Saint Laurent or YSL is a luxury fashion house
Fashion House
Fashion House is an American telenovela that aired at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT Monday through Saturday on MyNetworkTV stations. The series premiered on September 5, 2006 and concluded on December 5, 2006...

 founded by Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Bergé
Pierre Bergé
Pierre Bergé is a French industrialist and patron. He is perhaps best known as the co-founder of Yves Saint Laurent Couture House and former partner of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent.-Early life:...

. Today, its chief designer is Stefano Pilati
Stefano Pilati
Stefano Pilati is an Italian fashion designer. Since 2002, he has been the head designer of the fashion house Yves Saint Laurent.-Career:...

. Yves Saint Laurent, founder of the brand, died in 2008.

History

Yves Saint Laurent was founded by designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Bergé
Pierre Bergé
Pierre Bergé is a French industrialist and patron. He is perhaps best known as the co-founder of Yves Saint Laurent Couture House and former partner of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent.-Early life:...

 in 1962, and the current logos
Logo
A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition...

 were designed in 1963 by A. M. Cassandre
Adolphe Mouron Cassandre
Adolphe Mouron Cassandre was a Ukrainian-French painter, commercial poster artist, and typeface designer.-Early Life and Career:...

.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the firm popularized fashion trends such as the beatnik
Beatnik
Beatnik was a media stereotype of the 1950s and early 1960s that displayed the more superficial aspects of the Beat Generation literary movement of the 1950s and violent film images, along with a cartoonish depiction of the real-life people and the spiritual quest in Jack Kerouac's autobiographical...

 look, safari jackets for men and women, tight pants and tall, thigh-high boots, including the creation of arguably the most famous classic tuxedo suit for women in 1966, Le Smoking
Le Smoking
Created in 1966 by famous couturier Yves Saint Laurent, the Le Smoking tuxedo suit for women was the first of its kind to earn attention in the fashion world and in popular culture. It pioneered long, minimalist, androgynous styles for women, as well as the use of power suits and the pantsuit in...

 suit. Some of his most memorable collections include the Pop Art, Ballet Russes, Picasso and Chinese ones. He also started mainstreaming the idea of wearing silhouettes from the 1920s, '30s and '40s. He was the first, in 1966, to popularize ready-to-wear in an attempt to democratize fashion, with Rive Gauche and the boutique of the same name. He was also the first designer to use black models in his catwalk shows. Among St. Laurent's muses were Loulou de La Falaise
Loulou de la Falaise
Loulou de La Falaise was a fashion muse and designer of fashion, accessories, and jewelry associated with Yves Saint-Laurent. Author Judith Thurman, writing in The New Yorker magazine, called La Falaise "the quintessential Rive Gauche haute bohémienne"....

, the daughter of a French marquis and an Anglo-Irish fashion model, Betty Catroux
Betty Catroux
Betty Catroux is a former Chanel model and fashion icon who has been cited as a muse by both Yves Saint Laurent and Tom Ford. Saint Laurent has called her his twin sister and referred to her as his female incarnation...

, the half-Brazilian daughter of an American diplomat and wife of a French decorator, Talitha Pol-Getty
Talitha Getty
Talitha Getty was an actress of Dutch extraction, born in the former Dutch East Indies, who was regarded as a style icon of the late 1960s. She lived much of her adult life in Britain and, in her final years, was closely associated with the Moroccan city of Marrakesh...

, who died of drug overdose in 1971, and Catherine Deneuve
Catherine Deneuve
Catherine Deneuve is a French actress. She gained recognition for her portrayal of aloof and mysterious beauties in films such as Repulsion and Belle de jour . Deneuve was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1993 for her performance in Indochine; she also won César Awards for that...

, the iconic French actress. Ambassador to the couturier during the late 1970s and early 80s was London socialite millionairess Diane Boulting-Casserley Vandelli, making the brand ever more popular amongst the European jet-set and upper classes.

In 1993, the Saint-Laurent fashion house was sold to the pharmaceuticals company Sanofi for approximately $600,000,000. In the 1998-1999 seasons, Alber Elbaz
Alber Elbaz
-Biography:Alberto Elbaz was born in Casablanca, Morocco. He immigrated to Israel with his family at the age of ten and grew up in Holon. After serving in the Israeli Defense Forces, he studied at the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design in Ramat Gan...

, currently of Lanvin
Lanvin (clothing)
Lanvin is a high fashion house founded by Jeanne Lanvin.-History:Lanvin made such beautiful clothes for her daughter that they began to attract the attention of a number of wealthy people who requested copies for their own children...

, designed 3 collections.

Pierre Bergé
Pierre Bergé
Pierre Bergé is a French industrialist and patron. He is perhaps best known as the co-founder of Yves Saint Laurent Couture House and former partner of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent.-Early life:...

 appointed Hedi Slimane
Hedi Slimane
Hedi Slimane is a French fashion designer of Tunisian, Italian-Brazilian origins. He studied political sciences , and Art History at the École du Louvre, and was also educated as a tailor...

 as Collections and art Director in 1997, and they relaunched YSL Rive Gauche Homme. Hedi Slimane decided to leave the house 2 years later.

In 1999, Gucci
Gucci
The House of Gucci, better known simply as Gucci , is an Italian fashion and leather goods label, part of the Gucci Group, which is owned by French company PPR...

 bought the YSL brand and asked Tom Ford
Tom Ford
Thomas Carlyle "Tom" Ford is an American fashion designer and film director. He gained international fame for his turnaround of the Gucci fashion house and the creation of the Tom Ford label before directing the Oscar-nominated film A Single Man.-Early life :Tom Ford was born August 27, 1961 in...

 to design the ready-to-wear
Ready-to-wear
Ready-to-wear or prêt-à-porter is the term for factory-made clothing, sold in finished condition, in standardized sizes, as distinct from made to measure or bespoke clothing tailored to a particular person's frame. Off-the-peg is sometimes used for items which are not clothing.Ready-to-wear has...

 collection while Saint-Laurent would design the haute couture
Haute couture
Haute couture refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing. Haute couture is made to order for a specific customer, and it is usually made from high-quality, expensive fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable seamstresses,...

 collection.

In 2002, dogged by years of poor health, drug abuse, depression, alcoholism, criticisms of YSL designs, Saint-Laurent closed the illustrious couture house of YSL. While the house no longer exists, the brand still survives through its parent company Gucci Group.

The prêt-à-porter line is still being produced under the direction of Stefano Pilati
Stefano Pilati
Stefano Pilati is an Italian fashion designer. Since 2002, he has been the head designer of the fashion house Yves Saint Laurent.-Career:...

 after Tom Ford
Tom Ford
Thomas Carlyle "Tom" Ford is an American fashion designer and film director. He gained international fame for his turnaround of the Gucci fashion house and the creation of the Tom Ford label before directing the Oscar-nominated film A Single Man.-Early life :Tom Ford was born August 27, 1961 in...

 left in 2004. His style is decidedly more French than the overtly sexy image that Tom Ford perpetuated.

Style

Decades before Giorgio Armani
Giorgio Armani
Giorgio Armani is an Italian fashion designer, particularly noted for his menswear. He is known today for his clean, tailored lines. He formed his company, Armani, in 1975, and by 2001 was acclaimed as the most successful designer to come out of Italy, with an annual turnover of $1.6 billion and a...

, Yves Saint Laurent clothing glamourized for women some items taken from the male wardrobe, such as the blazer
Blazer
A blazer is a type of jacket. The term blazer occasionally is synonymous with boating jacket and sports jacket, two different garments. A blazer resembles a suit coat cut more casually — sometimes with flap-less patch pockets and metal buttons. A blazer's cloth is usually durable , because it is an...

, the tuxedo
Tuxedo
A tuxedo is a type of semi-formal dress for men.Tuxedo may also refer to:-Places:Canada* Tuxedo, Winnipeg, Manitoba, a city neighborhood** Tuxedo , a provincial electoral district in Manitoba...

, the pant suit, the leather jacket
Leather jacket
A leather jacket is a type of clothing—a jacket-length coat—usually worn on top of other apparel, and made from the tanned hide of various animals. The leather material is typically dyed black, or various shades of brown, but a wide range of colors is possible...

.

Architect Jean Nouvel
Jean Nouvel
Jean Nouvel is a French architect. Nouvel studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and was a founding member of Mars 1976 and Syndicat de l'Architecture...

designed a limited-edition flacon for L'Homme, an Yves Saint Laurent fragrance.

Yves Saint Laurent also markets a cosmetics line.

Online shopping

In October 2007, YSL redesigned their brand website and now lets US patrons purchase men's and women's ready-to-wear, leather goods, shoes, and accessories online. Items like their popular "Tribute" bag and shoe are examples. The selections vary but there are only a limited number of items available for purchase. There are also online exclusives.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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