We have heard the news, but, somehow, the decision still doesn't make sense to legions of fashion fans.
I'm referring to the announcement that arrived last week regarding new Yves Saint Laurent creative director Hedi Slimane, who, in the attempt to recapture the freedom that inspired Saint Laurent Rive Gauche, asked the house to drop the name of the founder.
Following this decision, the ready-to-wear stores and labels will be rebranded SLP (Saint Laurent Paris), but the YSL logo will remain the same.
Despite many fashion houses are currently identified by a single surname (think about Donatella Versace dropping the name Gianni after her brother's death or other maisons that do not carry anymore the name of the founder, such as Chanel, Lanvin and Givenchy), in the last few days this change has been negatively commented upon by loyal followers of the brand and fashion critics as well (and who knows what Pierre Berge, Saint Lauren't lover and business partner of 50 years, or his muse Catherine Deneuve truly think about this change...).
YSL remains indeed one of the most recognisable acronyms in fashion and opting for SLP and introducing in this way the name of the French capital in the logo in an attempt at going local rather than global, may change the perspective of consumers or simply confuse them, critics state.
Slimane - who moved the creative studio of the maison from Paris to Los Angeles on his appointment, is currently working on new store designs for the French maison and will present his debut womenswear collection during Paris Fashion Week at the end of September - said that with this decision he wanted to project the famous French fashion house into a new era. Yet the business move sounds controversial and some critics also highlighted that, led by egomaniac impulses rather than by sensible needs, creative directors at historical fashion houses may be getting too much freedom in their decisions.
The change would be audacious and has been compared to Yves Saint Laurent's bold and revolutionary ideas such as launching a ready-to-wear line and creating his iconic “le smoking”, a tuxedo for women. Yet Slimane hasn't really brought in any tangible and extreme radical changes in fashion so far.
Justified as a return to the origins with Yves launching “Saint Laurent Rive Gauche” to distinguish ready-to-wear from couture, the move wasn't necessarily needed as the house does not seem to have any financial problems at the moment but can boast of being internationally recognisable (and this is also proved by the fact that the best selling products bearing the YSL logo - perfumes and cosmetics - will not be altered...).
In a way, though, the new acronym sounds terrifically comical: while YSL can only mean the house that Yves founded, the SLP acronym indicates different things in different fields, from "Service Location Protocol" to "Speech Language Pathologist", "Sea Level Pressure" and "School Lunch Program". And while Slimane should have maybe enlisted the help of one of those researchers who check out if a name for a specific product that does not mean anything in one language may be highly offensive in another, he can be sure that, while SLP may not be very successful on a global scale, supporters of the S(cottish) L(abour) P(arty) and S(cottish) L(iberal) P(arty), will be pretty happy to know they will soon have dedicated lines of clothes and accessories.
That said, we genuinely hope this change will not give strange ideas to another infamous creative director, Karl Lagerfeld: he may not have seen any need to alter Chanel's logo or name in his 29-year-old career at the maison, but when egomaniac attitudes are involved, you never know what may happen...
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Great post! Personally, I'm really impressed! I love the way you write your blogs!
Posted by: Anne H | June 27, 2012 at 10:03 AM