What Saint Laurent is known for
The house of le smoking — Anthony Vaccarello’s sharp-shouldered Parisian seduction on Rive Gauche foundations laid in 1961. Past seasons of the Rive Gauche line reach The Mall outlet at Leccio Reggello, outside Florence.
Yves Saint Laurent, who had succeeded Dior at twenty-one, founded his own house with Pierre Bergé in 1961 and proceeded to hand women the male wardrobe: Le Smoking tuxedo in 1966 — photographed by Helmut Newton into permanent iconography — the safari jacket, the pantsuit, the sheer blouse. His 1966 Rive Gauche line made him the first couturier to take ready-to-wear seriously as a creative act rather than a diffusion. The house's Paris archives are now a museum in his former studio. Under its current direction the label trades in sharp-shouldered, rock-inflected tailoring that keeps faith with the founder's silhouette. The Mall outlet outside Florence offers the house at reduced prices — worthwhile for the tailoring and leather goods, where the design constants hold. A black YSL blazer remains one of fashion's few genuinely permanent purchases.
At the outlet, hold out for the tailoring and leather rather than logo pieces — the cut is the house's permanent asset and discounts on it are the real find.
In the press
- The Guardian 2025
How ORBIS reads this city
Best for — Le smoking energy, Kate bags and rock-precise tailoring.
France.
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Where next
- Stella McCartney — Florence
- Rabanne — Paris
- Emanuel Ungaro — Paris
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