Abstract

Many things happened to the Yves Saint Laurent Couture House since its creation in 1962 by the genius fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergé who managed the business. Yves Saint Laurent Couture House was soon really successful as well in France than internationally. However since the late 80s the public was starting to lose interest for the company because it was perceived a little bit outdated. Then in 1999 François-Henri Pinault's Group acquired the company. It was not the first time the company was acquired but it was the first time a change of leadership was made. For the first time Yves Saint Laurent was not given carte blanche to create and Pierre Bergé was marginalized in the decision making. They both retired in 2002 partly because of this. In spite of the turnover strategy implemented by the new owners of the company, Yves Saint Laurent Couture House's results were surprisingly lower that what was expected. Finally in 2012, Hedi Slimane was appointed as new artistic director of Yves Saint Laurent Couture House and seems to be successful through a strong leadership. Upon his arrival, the company renewed with profits. However some of the artistic changes are far from pleasing everybody and he took the decisions to make them quasi-unilaterally. Are success and profitability going to last?

Detailed information