With an early and eager interest in fashion, Yves Saint Laurent was inspired by a play by Moliere called ‘Ecole des Femmes’ - he was instantly enchanted by the costumes and sets. With his family encouraging his aspirations, Saint Laurent travelled to Paris in 1955 to enrol in a professional pattern cutting school for three months, and that same year, Yves Saint Laurent’s drawing’s caught the attention of French Vogue editor, Michel de Brunhoff - he was struck by the similarity of Christian Dior’s forthcoming collection, therefore, he Saint Laurent to Dior who immediately hired him as an assistant. In 1957, Christian Dior unexpectedly died of a stroke and his sudden death left Saint Laurent as head designer of the house of Dior. He presented his first Dior collection in January 1958, and at the time the house of Dior was responsible for nearly 50% of French fashion exports, making Saint Laurent’s success crucial for the French economy. His first show featuring the “trapeze” look was an instant triumphant with the Parisians and Yves Saint Laurent was recognised as the ‘saviour’ of France.
Announcing plans to open his own couture house, Saint Laurent presented his first collection in 1962 and over the following years created pivotal trends and styles such as the ‘Le Smoking jacket’ which was regarded as a cardinal moment within the arrival of androgynous style. Saint Laurent sold his fashion house in 1993 and during the 1998–1999 seasons, Alber Elbaz, formerly of Lanvin, designed three ready-to-wear collections. Then, Pierre Bergé appointed Hedi Slimane as collections and art director in 1997, and they relaunched YSL Rive Gauche Homme. Slimane decided to leave the house two years later, and he became head of couture menswear at Dior Homme. In 1999, Gucci bought the YSL brand and asked Tom Ford to design the ready-to-wear collection, while Saint Laurent would design the haute couture collection. Saint Laurent was heavily quoted around the world for stating, "Chanel freed women, and I empowered them". Following the death of Yves Saint Laurent in 2008 and Hedi Slimane replaced Stefano Pilati as the creative director. In 2015, Slimane announced that he would be reviving Yves Saint Laurent's couture line. Despite the fact that Slimane had previously worked with the house, there was much controversy following his appointment, particularly after it was announced that the ready-to-wear line would be rebranded as Saint Laurent. However, the Yves Saint Laurent name and YSL logo have been retained for accessories such as eyewear, handbags, shoes and cosmetics. In 2016, Slimane left Saint Laurent and Anthony Vaccarello took over as creative director.
Saint Laurent Eyewear represents the house's distinctive heritage and attitude; seductive, timeless and contemporary. The Saint Laurent sunglasses collection are distinguished by their outstanding quality and striking mix of masculine and feminine aesthetics. Each statement silhouette, ranging from strong cat-eyes to bold square shapes blend seamlessly with unique colourways, Havana and tortoiseshell patterns and subtle branding. Taking inspiration from the original Yves Saint Laurent glamorous rock'n'roll muses, each pair of Saint Laurent glasses are decorated with distinctive accents such as metal hardware, YSL monograms and exaggerated shapes.
#PRETLOVES Saint Laurent
