The story of the world-famous luxury fashion house Saint Laurent's brand

Yves Saint Laurent was born in 1936 in Algeria, which was still a French colonial at that time. Laurent, who sewed paper dolls and clothes in his youth, became responsible for the women's clothing in the home before they turned 18. When he proved his talent, he appeared on the Paris road route and the designer found himself at the door of Chambre Sydicale de la Haute Couture. Drawing attention in a short time with his designs, Laurent was introduced to Christian Dior by Vogue Paris editor Michel de Brunhoff. His life changed when he started working for Dior.

Dior asked Laurent a question during a dress rehearsal; "Do something with this dress so it looks slimmer than it is." Standing to the side like a timid boy, 18-year-old Laurent intervened in the dress with perhaps unexpected courage. He was so comfortable doing these that he tore the fabrics and took a large piece and tied it around the model's waist. Just when he did what Dior wanted, he stepped aside. Thanks to Laurent's agile fashion mind, Dior wrote his name in his will as chief designer. With the sudden death of Christian Dior in 1957, Laurent, who was only 21 years old, became the chief designer of the Dior custom sewing house, the cornerstone of Paris fashion.

The second step of Laurent, who had great success in his first fashion show at the fashion house, was to shorten his unnecessarily long name. Just in the middle of his booming career, he unexpectedly joined the French army and the Algerian War, which would inflict irreversible damage. 

His return to the fashion scene was thanks to Pierre Bergé, who would be her long-time business partner and life partner. During the initial phase of the new fashion house they established under Laurent's name, Pierre talked to Laurent for a long time and supported him. 

When he founded the fashion house that bears his name in 1961, he took a revolutionary step in women's clothing. His designs, inspired by men's clothing forms and circulating between the genders, giving that power to the wearer, shocked the fashion industry. Laurent, who blew like a storm on the podium between 1960 and 1970, became the center of attention with his unisex clothes, tight leggings and narrow long boots. He shook the fashion world deeply with his women's tuxedo, 'Le Smoking', which he debuted in 1966. 

He once again made his mark on the pages of history as the first French designer to launch a 'ready to wear' collection, laying the foundations for the democratization of luxury, one of the indispensable discourses of today's fashion. As you may remember, the first customer of the first store of the 'ready to wear' collection was French actress Catherine Deneuve.

Laurent, who had to work very hard, started to use alcohol and drugs due to his race with himself and the industry, his psychological instability and his perfectionist nature. From time to time, when he was unable to walk at the end of his shows, he saluted with the support of models. 

The designer, who experienced the first major collapse of his career with the New York show in 1987, garnered a great reaction with his 'everyday' jacket containing $100,000 jewellery, just days after Black Monday. As he moved away from following the agenda, the public also moved away from his designs. The media simply described the show as "boring". 

In 2002, Laurent retired to Marrakech with his dog Moujik to fight health and drug problems, and closed his haute couture house after his last fashion show, which was a nostalgic moment for 40 years of his working life. Laurent died on June 2, 2008, in Paris, at the age of 71 from brain cancer. The empire that Laurent built and the ideas he integrated into it continued to add value and meaning to the brand, regardless of its existence. 

Creative directors after Yves Saint Laurent 

Alber Elbaz

Although Saint Laurent continued to build its flamboyant portfolio, in 1998, it entrusted the ready-to-wear side of the brand to Alber Elbaz to dedicate itself only to the couture line. However, he parted ways with the designer, who only released collections for the fashion house for three seasons.

Tom Ford 

Just in this period, Tom Ford, who was also the creative director of Italian Gucci, took the helm of the fashion house, which was bought by the Gucci Group, and a new era began for the brand. Almost everything in his first collection for YSL seemed designed to make a striking impact. And a rapid increase in the sales of the brand was observed. Between 1999 and 2004, after releasing 16 great collections for Tom Ford, YSL and Gucci, he announced that he was establishing his own brand and parted ways. 

Stefano Pilati

After Tom Ford's departure, former Miu Miu designer Stefano Pilati became the creative director of YSL. Introducing his first collection with the 2005 Spring/Summer fashion show, Pilati's line referred to voluminous skirts and thick belts against the sharp tailoring and minimal detailing of the brand.  

Hedi Slimane 

Undoubtedly, all of its designers left a mark on the French fashion house. But none were as transformative as Slimane. During the four year transformation process he has drawn for the brand, the brand's launching as Saint Laurent Paris by dropping the 'Yves' in its name was perhaps one of the most discussed issues. With this vision, Saint Laurent began to build its current look and demonstrated this consistency in both women's and men's collections. Luxuriously crafted leather jackets, rock star boots, metallic party dresses…

Carrying the glamorous elegance of the 1970s and 1980s to her fashion shows, Slimane paid attention to her model selections and ensured that the music played was exclusive to that event. Preferring to present women's and men's collections together, Slimane also preserved the legacy of cross-gender transition that the fashion house had defended from the very beginning.

In 2015, Hedi Slimane announced that a new launch would be made for haute couture after working on it for three years. On April 1, 2016, the announcement that his contract would not be renewed despite the rising profit of the brand came as a big shock and Slimane left the brand.

Anthony Vaccarello

Anthony Vaccarello, who sits in the creative director chair of the brand today, continues to keep the brand alive and on display with new looks that will constantly move forward. Still, it was possible to say that his designs stood somewhere between Yves Saint Laurent's early lines and Hedi Slimane's reinterpretations.