Saint Laurent Paris quietly rebrand their logo to a Classic Look.

 

In 2012 Hedi Slimane made waves in the fashion industry by completely revolutionising Yves Saint Laurent.  They took the brand, which by this point had stagnated hugely from its origins, and turned it into a rock n roll luxury slim cut affair which has taken it from strength to strength.  Now, if you see a celebrity with a wool teddy, or slim cut dark overcoat, there's a high chance it's from Saint Laurent Paris.

This last point however, the naming of the brand, caused perhaps more controversy than any other.  Numerous articles were written about whether the new sans serif simplified logo, which dropped the "Yves", was a tribute to the brands creator, or a disservice.  It got to such a point that Hedi, normally very reticent to speak to media, gave an interview to Vogue to justify their choices (here).

However, what has seemingly gotten no attention, and is not being discussed anything like Slimane's move, is the fact that the new creative director, Anthony Vaccorello, is quietly changing the logo again.  Seen above, the new logo appears to be a return to the traditional stylised font, but dropping also the "Paris" from it.  

This appears to be a very inconsistent move from our analysis.  The website has the new logo, some shirts, knitwear and coats have it, while a lot of outerwear has the old logo.  Furthermore, there are several leather jackets with the new logo, and "Paris" in the old font.  

We're not quite sure why the move has been made, and confused why it's been done so inconsistently.  Gut instinct suggests Vacorello wants to make their mark.  However, they seem to have failed, as we can't find anyone discussing it.  Also, if you want to make a mark, why not have a consistent roll out across all levels of the brand?

It seems to us that this is probably a case of Vaccarello wanting to distinguish themselves, but corporate preventing them from doing so from fears of loosing money to consumers that might not like the new style.  This indicates Vacarello probably doesn't have the same weight as Slimane, so wasn't able to make the bold move the Belgian made.  We predict this will either fizzle out, and return to Slimane's logo, or we will just see the inconsistent branding across lines.  Until of course Vaccarello is replaced with someone who can introduce something new.