It’s been 3 years since Hedi Slimane departed Saint Laurent and was replaced by creative director Anthony Vaccarello. Often when a new creative director takes office at a big design house the waves are felt within a couple of seasons—take Slimane’s designs for Celine, or Clare Waight Keller’s work at Givenchy. However, in the 3 years since Slimane’s exit from Saint Laurent the direction of its bags didn’t stray far from the vision that Slimane left behind. The Sac de Jour remained a large part of Saint Laurent’s line up, and Slimane’s wildly popular Monogramme bags carried on the logo love. Slowly Vaccarello began to introduce bags that strayed a bit from the mark Slimane left at Saint Laurent, and for Spring 2019 it seems that Vaccarello has continued to come into his own.
First there was the structured, and seemingly unbranded Bellechasse bag and then there was the recently introduced Manhattan Satchel. Both of these bags finally moved away from Saint Laurent’s (sometimes excessive) use of logo hardware. At a time when the logo love is at its peak, Vacarello might be on to something as consumers are getting sick of overly branded, in your face, designs. For Spring 2019, Saint Laurent’s newest bags continue to move away from Slimane’s constant obsession with exaggerated logo hardware. Of course, the YSL logo is present in some of Vaccarello’s new bags, but in a much less obvious way. The new Le 61 Bag features an embossed leather monochromatic logo, and the Monogramme Suede Shoulder Bag features an all-over tiny logo print that’s so barely there it took me a moment to understand why it was called ‘Monogramme’. View these new designs below and let us know what you think.
