Pierre Berge

Some of the industry's biggest names commented on Hedi Slimane changing the name of Yves Saint Laurent to Saint Laurent Paris, but Slimane himself had remained silent until recently. The designer finally explained his reasons for the shift in an interview with Vanity Fair.

"It is interesting to see how much reaction this retro branding has created," Slimane said. "Clearly, this period of the history of the house was not well-known, which I trust was a surprise for Pierre Bergé. I went back to 1966 — just before the events of 1968 [when 11 million workers revolted against the conservative politics of then-President Charles de Gaulle — the biggest general strike in history], but the awakening of youth was in the air, and Yves Saint Laurent wanted to dissociate himself from the clientele of haute couture and embrace this new generation."

Since Slimane announced the name change in June, Arizona Muse, Karl Lagerfeld, and Bergé himself have publicly voiced their support for the change. When the house revealed an image of the new branding on Facebook last month, its followers were not as enthusiastic. One called the new name and logo "an act of disrespect" against the house's founder.

Saint Laurent, who would have turned 76 last week, was considered a pioneer in ready-to-wear when he founded Saint Laurent Rive Gauche in 1966, but he continued to design couture until he retired from fashion in 2002.

Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.

• Miranda Kerr's manager has denied a rumor that she and Orlando Bloom are headed for divorce. [The Sun]
  

• Karlie Kloss wears a chain-mail dress from Yves Saint Laurent's Stefano Pilati era on the cover of Vogue Japan's September 2012 issue. [Design Scene]
  

• Pierre Bergé, formerly Yves Saint Laurent's business partner, has just signed on to lead the steering committee of the newly formed Maison du Prêt à Porter Féminin et des Accessoires. The body will "foster dialogue between all fashion and accessories professionals." [WWD]
  

• Anna Wintour is said to be hosting another fundraising dinner for President Obama's reelection campaign. Wintour will reportedly host the party with Harvey Weinstein in Greenwich, CT, on Aug. 6, and guests will have to donate $35,800 apiece to the campaign. [Page Six]
  

• Rachel Roy could never find long-enough jeans to wear when she was younger, so she covered her ankles with "white scrunchy socks. I really hope there's no pictures of those anywhere," she says. [Racked]
  

• Nicole Richie's upcoming collaboration with Macy's INC doesn't shy away from prints or from mixing masculine and feminine elements. [Catwalk Queen]
  

• Crimes of fashion do not pay. A judge fined Linda and Courtney Allen — a mother and daughter who live in Syosset, NY — $44 million for advertising and selling fake Coach products online. [Refinery29]

Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.

• Jean Paul Gaultier's third edition of his special bottles for Diet Coke makes the bottle look as though it's wearing a corset made of tattoos. [Styleite]
  

• Anne Vyalitsyna has landed her second film role, securing a spot in the upcoming film Lullaby alongside Amy Adams, Jennifer Hudson, Terrence Howard, and Garrett Hedlund. Vyalitsyna will also star in next year's A Good Day to Die Hard. [Modelinia]
  

• After a three-year absence from the industry, designer Veronique Branquinho will relaunch her eponymous label in partnership with the Italian clothing manufacturer Gibò this September. "Before, I had an independent company. I was responsible for everything," she said. "In this new situation, it feels so comfortable, because I'm only busy with the creative part." [WWD]
  

• Former Yves Saint Laurent muse Betty Catroux says she, like Pierre Bergé, supports all the changes Hedi Slimane is making at the venerable brand. "All Hedi's decisions are brilliant and it is so clever of him to work in Los Angeles — in peace, away from everything, under the sun," she said. [The Cut]
  

• Tory Burch is expanding her brand's reach with a fragrance that will launch in September. She also wants to create clothing for yoga, tennis, and golf, and envisions a home collection in the future. [Elle]

Pierre Bergé, cofounder of Yves Saint Laurent, said he supports Hedi Slimane changing the name of the brand to Saint Laurent Paris.

The move, which the house announced yesterday, is designed to bring the house back to its roots as a pioneer of ready-to-wear, and that makes Bergé "very happy."

"Anything that makes the house more Saint Laurent is welcome," he said. "I am happy that Stefano Pilati is gone, just as I was happy when Tom Ford left."

Slimane will preserve the house's iconic YSL logo for institutional purposes but will employ the graphic elements and fonts Saint Laurent used when he launched his ready-to-wear line Saint Laurent Rive Gauche in 1966. Slimane will also design his collections in Los Angeles instead of in Paris — and Bergé doesn't have a problem with that either.

"The creative studio is in a designer's head, it resides within the person," he said. "Hedi lives in Los Angeles. He should be left to do fashion in a city he likes."

Photo: Pierre Bergé attends the investiture of French President Francois Hollande.

Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.

• Domenico Dolce (above, right, with Stefano Gabbana) will debut his first book of photography, Campioni — Fotografie by Domenico Dolce, at Dolce & Gabbana stores this July. The book will feature 67 black and white photos of young soccer players. "With my images I wanted to pay tribute to the strength and innocence of these players, and at the same time I wanted to realize one of my dreams: to take photographs," Dolce said. [WWD]
  

• Viktor & Rolf collaborated with Bugaboo on a baby stroller called the Cameleon3. The limited-edition stroller will be available at Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's, and Neiman Marcus in September. [LilSugar]
  

• Director Jalil Lespert is working on a fictional film that tells the real-life love story between Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé. Bergé has given Lespert his blessing, but no details about casting in the film have been made available. [Styleite]
  

• Calvin Klein has tapped actor Alexander Skarsgard to be the face of its new men's fragrance, Encounter. Skarsgard plays the part of Eric Northman on the HBO series True Blood, which premieres its new season on Sunday. [Fashionista]
  

• Kate Moss and husband Jamie Hince have added a new member to their family: a Staffordshire mix named Archie. [PopSugar]
  

Yves Saint Laurent at his final couture show in 2002.

>> Pierre Bergé, who lived with Yves Saint Laurent for almost 50 years, says new YSL designer Hedi Slimane is in for an uphill battle — but Bergé believes Slimane is ready for the task.

Bergé told T Magazine that filling Saint Laurent's shoes is "a great problem, very complicated, to recreate the work of a genius. Like trying to rewrite Faulkner," Bergé said. "To put your stamp on the name of Yves Saint Laurent requires someone who has talent, conviction, rigor, a demanding nature and a great sense of color."

And Slimane, who was announced as the successor to former YSL creative director Stefano Pilati earlier this month, has that — or at least Bergé thinks he does. He called Bergé "a man of talent who can preserve the genius and legacy of Yves Saint Laurent."

Bergé is currently in Denver, CO, exhibiting some 200 of Saint Laurent's finest pieces at the Denver Art Museum. The retrospective will only show in Denver and will run through July 8.

>> In recent years, Hakaan, Giles Deacon, and Gareth Pugh have all been awarded the ANDAM Prize — the largest international fashion prize of its kind — and as a result moved their fashion shows to Paris. Who will be next? The 2011 nominees have just been announced, and include Adam Kimmel, Anthony Vaccarello, Commuun, Jeremy Laing, Matthew Harding, and Yiqing Yin. The 22 jury members — which this year include Pierre Berge, Delfine Arnault, Emmanuelle Alt, Humberto Leon, Sarah Lerfel, and Hilary Alexander, will meet on June 28 to select the 2011 prize winner, who will receive 200,000 euros (approx. $282,000); a donation of 10,000 euros ($14,100) worth of Swarovski crystals for their Spring 2012 collection; and mentorship by former Chloe CEO Ralph Toledano for two seasons on creative and commercial development. [Filep Motwary]

>> Between Alexander McQueen committing suicide last year, John Galliano's drunken, anti-Semitic outburst, and Christophe Decarnin being sidelined for depression treatments, many are starting to wonder if the fashion industry and its current pressures — particularly the demand for more and more collections, released faster and faster — are to blame for designers spinning out of control. Karl Lagerfeld, Michael Kors, and more address the issue:

Karl Lagerfeld: “I see designing, running a company, like a high-level athletic activity. I don’t want to hear anything about the fragility or any of those things. If an athlete is too fragile to run, he cannot run. And this is exactly the same. You don’t accept this kind of business if you’re too much of an artist. I believe in discipline, so I’m not the right person to cry about weakness and things like this, but maybe I’m not human.”

Marc Jacobs: “You don’t think bank tellers have problems? You don’t think people in the middle of the suburbs have problems? Blaming is such a complete waste. I mean, it’s so pointless. To say, you know, my mother was absent and therefore I ran amok, it’s ridiculous. It’s a self-destructive nature, it’s a mental, physical and a kind of spiritual malady . . . people who are happy and healthy and spiritually well don’t do things to hurt themselves.”

Yves Saint Laurent's longtime business partner Pierre Berge: “I have a lot more sympathy for people who have to take the train to work every day. What a load of nonsense! No, no, no. Designers are artisans who are extremely privileged to have a poetic profession. They are not artists. We have to stop saying that they are.”

Marc Jacobs's longtime business partner Robert Duffy: “You cannot blame the industry. The majority of actors are not drug addicts, the majority of designers are not drug addicts.”

Theory founder Andrew Rosen: “I don’t see fashion as an industry being ahead of the world in terms of this issue. It’s a devastating and unfortunate condition that happens in every walk of life. It doesn’t make it better or OK, it’s a devastating illness to all those around it. Drug addiction, and addiction in general, is unfortunately part of society today. Maybe because we’re so close to our industry, we feel it more. Whenever it happens, it’s horrible.”

Michael Kors: "No question . . . I mean, I forget what season I’m in sometimes. I think every designer in today’s world, I don’t care whether you’re a designer who makes clothes that are phantasmagorical or very pragmatic, you have to figure out something that can ground you and bring you back. Whatever it is, if you go to the gym too much or you travel too much, you’ve got to have time to escape. I always tell everyone the crazy conversation I’ve had forever with actors, if they do two films in a row, and they’ve lived these characters and they’re on the set away from their friends and family, but then they take a year off. What are designers supposed to say? 'I’m tired. I’m not doing fall. Wear last year’s clothes, and maybe get some new nail polish.' It’s endless."

Photographer Mert Alas: “I’m the kind of person that I live under pressure, but I enjoy the pressure, so it very much relates to your own personality. Of course we’re all under pressure. The bus driver is under pressure. But, you know, it’s how you come out of it. If you can make good fun with it, pressure can be enjoyable.”

New York Times's Cathy Horyn: "For designers already at big houses, the pressures must reach absurd levels . . . Many people in professional and creative fields are under intense pressure, but for designers that pressure is manifested on the runway. The problem goes beyond having to produce multiple collections a year; it’s the nearly brutalizing feeling that something new and relevant must be communicated each season."

Co-President of PR firm KCD Ed Filipowski: “As a publicist, I have also taken on many times the role of ‘fashion therapist’ to my clients. Globalization, digitalization — the speed and scope of our work — has added a tremendous amount of pressure not only to the creative field but everyone in this industry. I would venture to say we are all doing at least twice as much work twice as fast as we were five years ago.”

>> For the better part of a year now, Stefano Pilati's standing at Yves Saint Laurent has been under intense scrutiny. After reports circulated that he had renewed his contract at the house for three more years in October, the rumors of his imminent departure subsided — until Saint Laurent CEO Valerie Hermann, who with Pilati restored the house to profitability, announced last week she was stepping down to become CEO of Reed Krakoff on April 1. She helped recruit her successor at YSL, former Lanvin CEO Paul Deneve.

Then, a couple of days ago, someone tweeted under Kenzo's PR handle: "Just heard BIG news about this being a certain designer at an established French house's last season and being replaced by someone major!!" and "CEO has just left and now the designer replaced by someone who has moved away from design the last couple of yrs but stayed in fashion." The tweets — which seem to point to Pilati as the deposed and Hedi Slimane as the successor — have since been taken down (Note that YSL is under the PPR umbrella, whereas Kenzo is part of LVMH).

Now, Hint is reporting that according to sources, Hermann didn't leave her post last week, but rather was let go because of low sales volume. And Slimane — who designed for Saint Laurent before Dior Homme — has been chosen as Pilati's replacement, partially due to his friendship (read: ability to get along) with Pierre Berge. Word is, one way or another, the matter will be addressed by a spokesperson around Paris Fashion Week.

And in the aftermath? There's already been suggestions that Carine Roitfeld with consult for Slimane at the brand, and of course, there's the rumor that Pilati is set to take over at Giorgio Armani after the designer's retirement.