Yves Saint Laurent

Company: Kering SA

Brand value: US$2,690 million

Headquarter city: Paris

Category: Luxury

Year formed: 1961

Yves Saint Laurent is a high-end fashion brand for men and women, with a broad range of ready-to-wear clothing, shoes, bags, accessories, sunglasses and gifts. It pioneered the concept of luxury prêt-à-porter, through the launch of its «Saint-Laurent Rive Gauche» collection in 1966, and the brand is widely regarded as one of the most influential fashion houses in France and the world. It has 159 directly operated boutiques around the world, and has flagship stores at prestigious addresses in major cities such as Paris, London, New York, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo. Sales are especially strong in the Middle East and Asia, particularly mainland China. In 2016, Yves Saint Laurent opened 17 additional stores, including in two new markets: Canada and Malaysia. Yves Saint Laurent has a strong and growing e-commerce business; it is online in approximately 60 countries, and integrates sales with social media campaigns. It is one of the most popular luxury brands on Twitter, with more than 3.8 million followers, and has more than one million followers on Instagram since making this an area of focus in mid-2016. Under new creative director Anthony Vaccarello, four new advertising campaigns have been launched. One of these is for the new fragrance, Y, which is aimed at millennials. Parent company Kering announced in September 2017 that it would stop using excessively thin models in catwalk shows and photo shoots. Kering shares are listed on the Paris Euronext exchange.