Saint Laurent: what you need to know about this revolutionary French brand

Who was Yves Saint Laurent?

Saint Laurent was a French-Algerian designer who moved to Paris in 1953, when he was 17 years old. Saint Laurent was discovered as artist by the editor of French Vogue Micheal De Brunhoff, who introduced him to Christian Dior. During the following years, the young designer started to work with Dior and he became creative director in 1957. In 1961 Saint Laurent along with his partner Pierre Bergé founded the fashion house Yves Saint Laurent that originally was a House Haute Couture but in 1996 became the first luxury ready-to-wear French fashion brand. The ready-to-wear collection was named Saint Laurent Rive Gauche and that is why in 2015 the company under Creative Director Hedi Slimane changed its name from Yves Saint Laurent to Saint Laurent Paris.

Yves Saint Laurent: a brand that revolutionized the fashion industry by creating female collections inspired by menswear. The Algerian-French designer introduced innovative pieces such as “Le smoking” jacket: a black male tuxedo designed for women that made a huge impact on the industry and it still is one of the most iconic pieces of the French fashion house. Moreover Saint Laurent was the first designer to bring woman pantsuits to the world of high fashion. A year after “Le smoking” jacket, the Algerian-French designer presented the pantsuit in his 1967 collection. At that time the new YSL line of female clothes was so controversial that some French restaurants were banning women who wore YSL trouser suits. Yves Saint Laurent was a fashion pioneer and he was also the first one to transform the safari jacket to a high fashion piece of clothing. Saint Laurent had a fearless approach to gender fluidity and he celebrated female sexuality in an innovative way; he took traditionally masculine items and made them work for a new kind of female fashion that helped women to find comfortable and elegant clothes to express their new identity.

Saint Laurent eyewear: a selection from our website

Even when we speak about eyewear, the French brand has made its mark on the fashion world and it continues to surprise with its iconic style. In our website Optifashion.com you can find a fine selection of eyewear designed by Saint Laurent Paris and you can also visit our exclusively boutiques to try all the models available and see the newest collections. In our website you can buy some iconic pieces such as the cat eyes and you can also find some classic models such as the aviator and the wayfarer. Another very distinctive model available on our website is the black acetate that, with its modern and irregular shape, really expresses the modern and innovative style of the brand.