That ability to understand the mind-set of the consumer - and to feed the brand with images rather than words or personality (Slimane rarely spoke to the media) - is worth a lot more today than design skills, however grim that seems. It was, rather, to anticipate that young people didn’t want to dress like luxury freaks, that they were a little embarrassed by the generation of Tom Ford and John Galliano, just as Saint Laurent in the mid-1960s had rejected bourgeois couture by proposing the original baby-doll. But Slimane’s strength was never as a couturier. Most fashion insiders were regularly astonished at the trashiness of Slimane’s clothes - the fact that his baby-doll dresses and miniskirts seemed a pricier version of what you could get at Forever 21. In 2013, a year after his appointment as creative chief, he led revenue growth among YSL owner the Kering Group’s top luxury brands, beating Gucci and Bottega Veneta.
In that spirit, Vaccarello had the logo molded into stiletto heels.īut there’s no denying that without Slimane the company might not be getting such grand new digs. (The truth is, despite Slimane’s efforts, most people still say YSL.) Besides, it’s fun. Apparently, Vaccarello has restored the Y, which had been excised by his predecessor, Hedi Slimane, as both a throwback to the brand’s original name and an attempt to modernize it. The setting was the colonnade of a building that will eventually be the company’s headquarters - hoisted on a crane, blazing against the night sky, was the famous YSL logo.
In the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, not far from where many of the design legends of the 20th century once roosted, Anthony Vaccarello presented his first looks for Saint Laurent.