Yves Saint Laurent (fashion house)
Yves Saint Laurent SAS[2] (/ˌiːv ˌsæ̃ lɔːˈrɒ̃/, also UK: /- lɒˈ-/, US: /- loʊˈ-/, French: [iv sɛ̃ lɔʁɑ̃] ⓘ), also known as Saint Laurent and YSL,[3] is a French luxury fashion house founded in 1962 by Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Bergé. The company specializes in haute couture, ready-to-wear, leather accessories, and footwear.[4] Its cosmetics line, YSL Beauty, is owned by L'Oréal.[5][6]
Saint Laurent
1962 in Paris
- 37 Rue de Bellechasse
- 75007 Paris
- France
- Francesca Bellettini (CEO),
- Anthony Vaccarello (creative director)
- Ready-to-wear
- leather accessories
- footwear
€5.57 billion (2021)[1]
Advertising and criticism[edit]
In June 2015, the company was criticized for an advertisement published in the Elle UK magazine that was banned by the UK advertising regulator, which ruled that the model featured in it was "unhealthily thin".[34][35][36][37][38]
On March 8, 2017, a new advertisement for the Fall 2017 collection offended internet users who saw it as a "degrading vision of women" and again the use of anorexic models.[39] The company was ordered to remove two posters from this campaign by the French Advertising Standards Authority (ARPP),[40][41] which ruled them "degrading".[42][43]
Tax evasion[edit]
According to an investigation by Mediapart and the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) network, the company Yves Saint Laurent evaded approximately €180 million in taxes in France between 2009 and 2017, through an offshore scheme organized by its parent company Kering.[44] Between 2009 and 2017, the journalists detail, €550 million in profits were thus returned to a Swiss subsidiary of Kering, called Luxury Goods International (LGI), whose profits were taxed at around 8% by the canton of Ticino with the help of a tax agreement (while the corporate tax rate is 33% in France), while the company officially only realized €7 million in cumulative profits in France between 2009 and 2016 (resulting in an imposition of €430,000).[45][46]