The fashion industry may be torn about Hedi Slimane’s decision to change Yves Saint Laurent to Saint Laurent Paris, but the newly-appointed creative director has the approval of one person who matters: Pierre Bergé, the fashion house’s co-founder and longtime partner of the late designer.
“I’m very happy. Anything that makes the house more Saint Laurent is welcome,” Bergé told WWD. “I am happy that Stefano Pilati is gone, just as I was happy when Tom Ford left.”
The original Yves Saint Laurent ready-to-wear line went by Saint Laurent Rive Gauche when it debuted in 1966.
A spokesperson for the fashion house told WWD that Slimane would return to the “original branding,” thus “restoring the house to its truth, purity, and essence — and taking it into a new era” while “respecting the original principles and ideals.”
When WWD spoke to Bergé on Thursday, he informed the fashion trade publication that Slimane had alerted him about his plans by telephone several weeks ago.
Bergé also approves of Slimane’s decision to design the collection from Los Angeles, where the designer has been living for the past few years while pursuing a photography career.
“The creative studio is in a designer’s head, it resides within the person,” Bergé told WWD. “Hedi lives in Los Angeles. He should be left to do fashion in a city he likes.”
It looks as if Slimane can do no wrong in Bergé’s eyes — it will be interesting to see how the rest of the fashion world responds once the rebranding rolls out with the spring/summer 2013 collections.