Hedi Slimane, the new creative director of
Yves Saint Laurent, or rather Saint Laurent Paris, is making
his mark on this 50-year old luxury brand. It was recently
announced that the fashion house would now be called Saint Laurent
Paris, dropping its long held ‘Yves’.
When I first heard the news, much like the rest of the fashion
community, I thought, ‘why?’. It seemed as though the fashion
empire was doing just fine with its current moniker but after some
quick research, I realized that the new name is actually a
throwback to the brand’s early days. The inaugural Yves Saint
Laurent ready-to-wear line was named Saint Laurent Rive Gauche,
which was unveiled in 1966. Impressively, in an industry where
everyone has an opinion,
Slimane has garnered the blessing of Pierre Bergé, YSL’s
co-founder and partner of the beloved designer, even Tom Ford can’t
claim that.
The newly appointed creative director has a vision to usher
Saint Laurent Paris into a new day and age and pay homage to its
brand promise of “youth, freedom, and modernity”. According to WWD,
“Slimane would return to the ‘original branding,’ thus ‘restoring
the house to its truth, purity, and essence—and taking it into a
new era’ while ‘respecting the original principles and
ideals.’”
Being able to adapt to an ever-changing marketplace, identifying
with your core consumer, while remaining authentic to your brand is
the recipe for staying relevant, differentiated, and being able to
endure as a brand. Obviously Slimane is onto something.
My only fear is that this message isn’t being communicated
effectively as I read
an article in Fashionsita that was on the fence about
the changes being made to YSL’s brand identity. When dealing with a
brand of YSL's stature effective communication is key.
Luckily, and I believe to be the correct strategic move, Slimane
has opted to kept the ‘Yves’ in YSL symbol. This is a smart move
branding-wise as the symbol is synonymous with brand and is easily
recognizable. Additionally, accessories are the bread-and-butter of
the fashion industry, keeping the YSL symbol in tact will retain
the design aesthetic of their accessories. Slimane is proving to be
one to watch.
Photo credit: Wesley Vieira
Fonseca