There is plenty of chatter on social media today about the news that Hedi Slimane is planning to change the name of Yves Saint Laurent. Since taking over the reins at the fashion house in March, the designer has been busy making over the label which will now include changing its name.

WWD reports that Slimane intends to change the name from Yves Saint Laurent to simply Saint Laurent Paris. The changeover is expected to take place over the next couple of months in time for Slimane to present the first designs for Saint Laurent for spring 2013. Despite the name change it is believed that the iconic YSL logo will not change.

At the time that Slimane was appointed creative director at YSL, following on from Stefano Pilati, he was given “total creative responsibility for the brand image and all its collections.” Sources say that he is determined to take Saint Laurent into a new era while “recapturing the impulses that inspired the founder to launch the Saint Laurent Rive Gauche ready-to-wear line in 1966.” These include youth, freedom and modernity.

*My Thoughts: I freaking hate this. The name is it’s brand identity and should be left alone! Why fix something that isn’t broken! 

Hedi Slimane has been revealed as the new creative director at YSL taking over full creative duties for the label’s brand image as well as its collections. It will be the first time the designer will be put in charge of womenswear. The job will work in conjunction with Slimane’s other passion - photography. No doubt we’ll see a few ad campaigns from him as well for the fashion house.

“Hedi Slimane’s exceptional talent and understanding of the spirit of Yves Saint Laurent heralds a promising new chapter in the story of the maison”, said Paul Deneve, chief executive officer of Yves Saint Laurent in a statement.

“As one of the most important French fashion houses, Yves Saint Laurent today possesses formidable potential, which I am confident will be successfully harnessed and revealed through the vision of Hedi Slimane,” added François-Henri Pinault, PPR Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

{catwalkqueen.tv}

Judge Victor Marrero has ruled to deny Christian Louboutin’s request for a preliminary injunction that would prevent YSL from selling the red-soled shoes from its 2011 resort collection.

Yves Saint Laurent has made some red pumps with matching red soles. Christian Louboutin, in a fierce display of red-sole entitlement, is suing YSL for this. The Telegraph explains:

Yves Saint Laurent’s spring 2011 collection features a pair of red suede shoes with matching red soles, which have prompted Louboutin to file court papers in New York suing them. The collection also features purple shoes with purple soles, navy with navy soles and green with green soles, but it’s the red soles that have sparked the legal action.

The spring collection is not the first time YSL has made red shoes with matching red soles (the pumps pictured are from a past season collection and currently available on Bluefly). Louboutin’s legal team argues in court papers: “The defendants use of red footwear outsoles that are virtually identical to plaintiff’s Red Sole Mark is likely to cause and is causing confusion, mistake and deception among the relevant purchasing public as to the origin of the infringing footwear.” Do these shoes really confuse you? YSL’s platform pumps are pretty distinctive in the shape and contour of the sole and heel, hue of the back of the shoe aside. Maybe the question is: Are the number of people who know what a Loub is that much greater than the number of people who can spot a YSL Tribute pump?

http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2011/04/christian_louboutin_sued_yves.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nymag%2Ffashion+%28The+Cut+-+nymag.com%27s+Fashion+Blog+-+New+York+Magazine%29

Yves Saint Laurent RTW Fall 2011

PPR brass has long held that Stefano Pilati has no reason to feel like he has something to prove, and François-Henri Pinault officially set the record straight a few weeks ago. Regardless, Pilati’s fall collection for Yves Saint Laurent should shut the fashion gadflies up, at least for a little while. It hit the big house/global brand trifecta of today’s world — salability for the numbers people, statement for the editorial people and accessories for both. Don’t forget the heritage.

 Most importantly, the collection was presented with clarity of vision, opening strong with double-face Prince of Wales neatly tailored into coats, capes and suits with reverse trims on pockets and collars. In a nod toward Mary Quant, jackets were paired with pleated minis, cut spare and slim, and drop-waist shifts. One was done in slick patent leather with a cocoon back and a checked skirt with a blue hem. But Mod was not the point. Nor were cute schoolgirls, which is a direction that look can quickly go. It was purely adult, particularly when accessorized with thick, chain-link chokers and suede boots with a sculpted wedge that laced pertly up to the knee — both heavyweight chic.

 The checks played throughout, blown up big on a boyish blouson jacket and alluded to on a chunky sweater and dégradé furs. Pilati got into and out of graphic daywear — black, white and gray with spare pops of color — quickly before his all-sportif, all-white evening parade. He made his point, perhaps a little too earnestly, with jumpsuits, whether slim and trim with a sheer ruffled neck or wide-legged and filmy. There were A-line skirts and tie-neck blouses, mannish pants and a silk gown, all accented with gold chains. One note, but very YSL.

*The above are a few of my favorite looks from the collection*

http://www.wwd.com/fashion-week/fall-ready-to-wear-2011/review/yves-saint-laurent-rtw-fall-2011-3542399?city=paris#

With all the hallmarks one expects of a Purple magazine photo shoot, though with only implied nudity, model Constance Jablonski takes to the pages of their spring 2011 issue. Visually appealing for being sensually shot and soft on the eye it is, however, the shoot’s nature that is the real point of interest. Dedicated to the Yves Saint Laurent fashion house, and solely featuring clothes from their-in, it raises the question as to whether we’re looking at a pictorial or an advertorial-cum-pictorial.

The Anglo French understanding has rarely looked more cordial in fashion than in the Sunday, Jan. 23, menswear runway show of Yves Saint Laurent, the freshest and most elegant collection seen in Europe this season.

“Yves Saint Laurent silhouette; Pierre Berge French taste,” said YSL’s creative director Stefano Pilati, referring to Saint Laurent’s long-time partner, a dapper Frenchman who had his own suits made for him in London by tailor Anderson & Sheppard.

Staged in a gilded Grand Empire drawing room, and illuminated with faint afternoon winter light, the show opened with a series of rather Edwardian looks, including elongated jackets with velvet collars and shirts with micro rounded collars.

The collection was also quintessentially French in its lean cuts, beautifully made jackets and aloof refinement. Coats and jackets all featured inventive four-inch darts across the shoulder that seemed to mould the garment onto the models. Halfway through the show, Pilati altered direction with a half dozen A-line style coats with super wide sleeves that had great theatrical charm. Reminiscent of a gentleman man of letters, one mega lapel coat meets cloak looked incredibly smart, as did a pony skin trench finished at the bottom in black-dyed Argentine fox.

Though a highly knowledgeable fashion insider, Pilati also has a great visual sense of humor – seen in the camouflage rubber soles of many shoes, and the leopard pattern of their undersoles. Other sure fired accessory hits included sleek pony skin boots, and a final trio of models each wearing four rings spread over their four fingers, collectively spelling out the name YVES. Also, the heeled loafers and boots were a knockout.

“I wanted hidden beauty,” said Pilati, himself dressed in an elongated jacket, though with only two high buttons.

What made this collection so great was the sense of a designer respecting the signature style of a brand, while still managing to create a collection that could only have been shown in 2011.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/fwd/20110124/en_fashion_fwd/yvessaintlaurentsententecordiale