With its unique designs, and its magnificent fashion shows, some of which were held in front of the Eiffel Tower, the French fashion agency “Saint Laurent”, founded by Henri Donat Mathieu Saint Laurent, managed to be at the forefront of luxury brands over the past years, and its sales rose to about 3 billions of dollars.
It can be said that the past five years represented a quantum leap in the designs of this house, as the designer of the house, Anthony Vaccarello, was able to reveal the most provocative attractiveness of Saint Laurent, and convey it to the world in his own way.
“Vaccarello has made himself responsible for Yves Saint Laurent’s aesthetics, revealing the brand’s distinctiveness with his tone and flair,” wrote fashion critic Katie Horen.
Months before the house’s fall-winter fashion show, which took place last March in front of the Eiffel Tower, Saint Laurent was on the covers of magazines, a household name, and almost six years after Vaccarello’s residence, the brand seemed to be more receptive than ever. transformation in their designs.
Since arriving at Saint Laurent in 2016, Vaccarello has transformed the brand from retro and “rock ‘n’ roll”, refined and emphasized by his predecessor Heidi Slimane of Los Angeles, to a refined and simpler Parisian story.
Retaining the brand’s off-season approach, Vaccarello was able to shift the brand’s focus from shiny evening gowns to casual wear, tailoring and re-stitching, constantly transforming the bourgeois signatures of Yves Saint Laurent into something simpler and more modest, as well as carrying French DNA. For the brand, but with a cosmopolitan, modern appeal.
Meanwhile, CEO Francesca Pelletini’s clear approach to marketing and distribution helped increase the brand’s influence dramatically, with Saint Laurent’s sales growing nearly 5-fold, to €2.52 billion ($2.66 billion), after Pelletini joined the brand in 2013.
It doubled after Vaccarello became creative director in 2016, and Saint Laurent’s profits increased.
With 49% growth in retail sales in the fourth quarter, the brand is on track to exceed €3 billion in sales value this year, and this expected figure comes even though Saint Laurent is working to reduce its penchant for wholesale sales.
The desire for repetition and stylistic sophistication in designs seems to have helped to enhance consumers’ brand identity, with HSBC analyst Erwan Ramburg saying: “Saint Laurent has really achieved consistency, consumers are looking for distinctive products, and this is one of the most French brands. It doesn’t have to make noise every minute to attract you.”
At times, Saint Laurent’s success is due to the strong monotonous image of the brand and the store concept, founded by former creative director Hedi Slimane.
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