Yves Saint Laurent to change name

Hedi Slimane, Yves Saint Laurent’s newly-appointed creative director, has provoked a public outcry when, keen to “thrust Saint Laurent into a new era modern”, he announced the decision to remove the founder of the brand’s first name from the famous moniker.

The French house will be rebranded Saint Laurent Paris, although the iconic YSL logo will remain the same. This move, however daring, is not uncommon as the majority of the major fashion houses go by a singular surname – Versace, Gucci, Chanel, Prada.

Slimane, who replaced Stefano Pilati after leaving his post of creative director for Dior Homme,  was given “total creative responsibility for the brand image and all its collections”, and said that this rebranding was necessary to ”recapture the impulses that inspired the founder to launch the Saint Laurent Rive Gauche ready-to-wear line in 1966 – among them youth, freedom and modernity.”