My thoughts on the YSL controversy…
I think it’s a terrible decision.
After reading numerous articles on different news websites, here’s the breakdown:
- Creative Director Hedi Slimane is now going for a younger look, which means he wants to target younger consumers instead of those who have been loyal to the brand for years
- Slimane’s 2013 Spring/Summer collection will only be shown to a certain number of buyers instead of an actual runway show. How exclusive can you get?
- Cosmetics and accessories will still carry the YSL logo.
I think taking out the Yves from Yves Saint Laurent will just tarnish the image of the brand. People recognize and even say ‘YSL’. Making it just Saint Laurent just doesn’t sit right. That’s like saying we’re just going to call Donna Karan’s line ‘Karan’ and take out Donna.
Yves Saint Laurent is a fashion house that has revolutionized clothing and the industry since the late 1960’s. Though Saint Laurent passed away in 2008, and Slimane has been a designer for the fashion house before taking on this new position, I feel that he should try and stay true to who Yves Saint Laurent was as a designer and what the brand has always been. Karl Lagerfeld, for example, has always kept Coco Chanel’s famous tweed jackets in style. To target younger consumers and keep up with today’s fashions, every season he tweaks the tweed jacket to make it fit what women want now. He also does the same with the classic patent leather bag.
Who knows what will come when this collection actually shows. I’m sure a ton of people in the industry are fuming over this decision. I’m going to say that it’s a bad marketing move. You can’t change the name of a designer after being in business for almost forty years and being considered one of the most important fashion houses in the history of clothing.
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