When Anthony Vaccarello took over the reigns at Saint Laurent 4 years ago, he had to fill the shoes of Hedi Slimane who created a successful assortment of covetable bags for the brand. Slimane’s strategy seemed to work incredibly well. Even though he continued to churn out new bags, they all fit the same aesthetic and most featured the brand’s unambiguous YSL logo. His bags saw massive success for the brand, ending up on the arms of celebs, editors and everyday bag lovers.
There’s a popular saying: “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” and that’s the method that Vaccarello chose to follow. Unlike other designers who take a post at a new brand only to completely revamp its core aesthetic, Vaccarello built upon the successes of his predecessor and continued to introduce Slimane-esque designs.
However, last year Vaccarello surprised us with a handful of new Saint Laurent bags, which appeared to show the brand’s bags moving towards a new, less logo-driven, direction. It’s been over a year since and even though the brand has released more logo-free bags, its prominent assortment of branded bags appears to be just as big as ever. This begs the question: can Saint Laurent steer consumers away from its logo all together?
Not likely, at least not now. The brand has seen massive success with its popular monogram bags like the Kate, the Envelope Shoulder Bag and the Loulou. The bags work, meaning they sell, which is why they’re continuously produced season after season. Slimane sent waves through the industry when he decided to drop the ‘Yves’ in Yves Saint Laurent, and he then went on to revamp the brand’s hardware as well with the use of the iconic and bold YSL logo that we know today.
And while Saint Laurent’s accessories business wasn’t exactly struggling prior to Slimane’s appointment, he did help the brand grow its presence in the market exponentially. Because of that success, Vaccarello had incredibly large shoes to fill and changing the brand’s direction entirely at its core is likely to fail in some regard, which explains why the changes we’re seeing are so gradual. Check out some of the brand’s logo free bags below and let us know if you think we’ll ever see the end of Saint Laurent’s logo bags all together.
Saint Laurent Joan Quilted Leather Shoulder Bag ($1,790)
Saint Laurent Croc Embossed Leather Duffle Bag ($2,750)
Saint Laurent Carre Calfskin Shoulder Bag ($1,890)
Saint Laurent Nano Manhattan Satchel ($1,650)
I support the idea of logo-less bags but to do that successfully, the bags need to be distinctive and something that makes them memorable. If you hide the brand name, there’s nothing about these bag designs that stand outs. I could walk into a TJ Maxx and find nearly identical bags, particularly since these bags echo popular designs from other houses.
the croc duffle DEFINITELY looks like a bag you can find at Ross on any given day.
Totally agree! I could find look-alikes on amazon. Need a bit more distinction.
In order for a designed bag to be completely logo-less, it has to have a distinctive silhouette, like Loewe’s puzzle bag or the Balenciaga city bag. Otherwise, it just looks like any generic leather bag you can buy from Zara. I don’t think YSL has created an iconic bag silhouette in the last few years.
The first bag looks incomplete. It’s missing something.
To be honest, without the YSL, it looks cheap and plain.
More than the design, the leathers look overly processed, which lends to the “this could be any brand” for me. Celine’s Classic bag is very non-descript, but the leather looks luxurious, so you know it’s something special, even if you don’t know what it is.
Old Celine looking like YSL and YSL looking like old Celine these days. Nothing unique here.
The white, quilted leather shoulder bag is just…boring.
Agree
PLEASE get rid of that hideous 70’s logo. I won’t consider any bag with that logo. Put me off to the brand altogether.
I think the design of the logo is exceptionally beautiful.
Too bad they always make it so huge it owerpowers the the bag.
From a critical perspective: Well, all of these bags minus the first one actually still have a logo, it’s just discreetly small. This allows for the design to speak for itself, so the fact that these designs are unremarkable on their own, screams loud and clear. This suggests that the clout of YSL’s brand is the name (sine the name invokes luxury and exclusivity) itself. You could argue that they’re “classic” designs and that that allows the quality of the craftsmanship to shine through, but in a market that is already oversaturated in every category and for every niche, brand’s have to be innovative and creative-or just bold- in order to beat the competition. These fail to do that.
On a personal note, I pretty much hate logos. I like people to look at me- if people see the logos before the person, then I am essentially a walking advertisement for the brand, in which case, then the brand should pay me, rather than the other way around. Paying a few Gs to a brand so that I can advertise for them makes me feel like a sucker. So I’d vote for these before that gaudy “YSL” hardware any day.
I like some logo bags and since non logo bags but YSL is a classic and changing the name of the house was just stupid in my opinion!
These bags are ugly and maybe hire a Handbag designor instead of creative director making boring bags
I love the YSL logo. It is both classic and elegant. It is what first attracted me to the brand…and I’m not a big logo person. It sets their bags apart from other brands. YSL bags are of excellent quality and I plan to add one or two more to my collection…with the logo.
I actually stayed away from Saint Laurent bags after they dropped the Yves because I expected them to discontinue all the bags with the YSL hardware anytime after that. It still puzzles me to this day why they got rid of the Yves but still use the YSL hardware.
I am not sure why Purse Blog keeps talking about the YSL logo. The logo is beautiful and has a lot of history and heritage. Why don’t you talk about Chanel bags and the Chanel CC logo which is over saturated, overrated and over priced. I own two Chanel bags and i am so disappointed in myself for buying them. The quality is not amazing and the look is basic. YSL and other brands have much nicer designs and quality.
It’s not YSL without Yves. I think this logo stays, especially because it’s also on their cosmetics line.