Saint Laurent

Saint Laurent is fashion after midnight. The house was founded in 1961 in Paris and gave the world Le Smoking, the Mondrian dress, and the template for modern French luxury. In its current form — the "Yves" dropped from the name, the aesthetic channeling rock and roll through skinny silhouettes and leather — it dresses people who look best in low lighting and don't plan on going home early.

Aesthetic & Identity

Saint Laurent under Hedi Slimane (2012-2016 as Saint Laurent Paris, then again from 2018 as creative director of the broader house) became the definitive rock-and-roll luxury brand. Skinny silhouettes, leather jackets, Chelsea boots, sheer blouses, sequin dresses — the vocabulary of 1960s Swinging London and 1970s Laurel Canyon, rendered in the finest French fabrics. The rebrand from Yves Saint Laurent to Saint Laurent in 2012 was controversial and permanent. The current direction under Anthony Vaccarello continues the nocturnal, sexually charged aesthetic — it's fashion for people who go out at night and look good under bad lighting. The Le 5 à 7 bag and the Kate bag are commercial anchors. The brand's imagery is always black-and-white, always moody, always suggesting a story that started before you arrived.

History & Trajectory

The original house was founded in 1961 in Paris. Yves Saint Laurent himself was among the most important designers in history — Le Smoking tuxedo for women, the Mondrian dress, the safari jacket. He retired in 2002 and died in 2008. The house cycled through creative directors — Tom Ford, Stefano Pilati — before Hedi Slimane's appointment in 2012 electrified and infuriated the fashion world in equal measure. Slimane's decision to drop "Yves" from the brand name felt like sacrilege to purists and like modernization to everyone else. Kering owns the house, and revenue has grown significantly through the 2010s and 2020s. Anthony Vaccarello, appointed in 2016, has maintained the rock-and-roll positioning while adding his own sensibility — more body-conscious, more overtly sensual.

Cultural Footprint

Saint Laurent is the brand that musicians reach for when they need to look like they don't care — which is, of course, the most calculated look of all. The Wyatt boot is the default footwear for anyone performing at a venue that still allows smoking. The brand dressed the skinny-jeans era of indie rock and then the skinny-jeans era of hip-hop. Slimane's casting of Hedi-era muses — young, thin, androgynous — defined an entire decade's beauty standard, for better and worse. The house's connection to art and photography is genuine — Slimane is a practicing photographer, and the brand's campaigns often double as art projects. Saint Laurent remains the default for red-carpet dressing that needs to look effortless rather than constructed.

What to Know

T-shirts $350-$600, leather jackets $3,500-$6,000, the Kate bag $2,000-$2,500, the Wyatt boot $1,100-$1,400. Available at ysl.com, Saint Laurent boutiques, Saks, Bergdorf Goodman, Net-A-Porter, and SSENSE. Key pieces: the Wyatt Chelsea boot, the classic leather biker jacket, the Kate bag, and the Le 5 à 7 bag. Sizing runs slim — particularly Slimane-era pieces, which are cut very narrow. The resale market values Hedi Slimane-era pieces (2012-2016) significantly, with some runway items from that period trading at multiples of retail on Vestiaire Collective.