Yves Saint Laurent

Hedi Slimane's first big move as creative director of Yves Saint Laurent will be to change the brand's name to Saint Laurent Paris.

The switch was confirmed Thursday after rumors circulated Wednesday. Saint Laurent CEO Paul Deneve explained the change to his staff in an internal memo:

"I am very pleased to announce an exciting step in the history of our brand and our business. As part of our strategy to become one of the world's true leaders in fashion and luxury, we are transforming the name of our brand from 'Yves Saint Laurent' to 'Saint Laurent Paris.' The new name of our brand has been shared with the media today. The brand identity and visual language will be introduced over the next several months and will be fully in place for the Spring/Summer 2013 collection. This change celebrates our legacy and heritage, while boldly marking our ambition for the future. It will allow us to return to the fundamentals of YSL and revive the spirit and the intentions that reigned over the creation of 'Saint Laurent Rive Gauche' in 1966: principles of youth, freedom, and modernity."

While the name of the brand will change, the house's iconic YSL logo — a French cultural icon — will not disappear. However, Slimane also plans to reintroduce the original fonts that were used when the Rive Gauche line launched in 1966. (At right, an ad announcing the opening of the store.)

Slimane, who took over the creative director's chair from Stefano Pilati in March, will present his first two collections for the house — men's Spring 2013 and women's Resort 2013 — to buyers only. He intends to make his first big statement to the press with his Spring 2013 collection during Paris Fashion Week later this year. When he assumed control, Slimane was given "total creative responsibility for the brand image and all its collections."

Photo: The finale of Yves Saint Laurent's Fall 2012 show.

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]
  

With her numerous award nominations and impressive list of film work, it's clear that Jessica Chastain's Hollywood star is on the rise. But her new gig as the ambassadress for Yves Saint Laurent's latest fragrance, Manifesto, seals the deal. "We were won over by the very subtle strength of Jessica Chastain, her solar charm, her free mind," Stephan Bezy of Yves Saint Laurent Beauté explained to WWD.

"Yves Saint Laurent is a brand that inspires me deeply," Jessica said of her latest role. "Since its creation, the brand has conveyed strong values that I cherish, such as an unwavering commitment, absolute love and feminine audacity. This new fragrance is an emblem of it all." Jessica is in good company, as well; she joins Emily Blunt in the YSL family (Emily is the ambassadress for the line's popular Opium scent). Manifesto is set to launch in France this August, with a US release planned for early next year.

Yves Saint Laurent has named actress Jessica Chastain as the face of its upcoming fragrance, Manifesto.

"We were won over by the very subtle strength of Jessica Chastain, her solar charm, her free mind," said Stephan Bezy, international general manager of Yves Saint Laurent Beauté at L'Oréal. "Jessica embodies the quintessence of Saint Laurent's femininity, a woman of her day and age, independent, determined, never where you expect her to be."

Manifesto will launch in France this September, and should make its way to stores across Europe by the end of the year before heading to the United States in early 2013. Details about the scent's fragrance notes and pricing weren't available at the time of this post, but the fragrance shares its name with the YSL photo periodical started by former creative director Stefano Pilati.

"Yves Saint Laurent is a brand that inspires me deeply," said Chastain, whose style profile has increased with recent appearances at the Cannes Film Festival and the CFDA Awards. "Since its creation, the brand has conveyed strong values that I cherish, such as an unwavering commitment, absolute love and feminine audacity. This new fragrance is an emblem of it all. I am [excited] to be part of this beautiful adventure."

Unlike most creative directors at French fashion houses, Yves Saint Laurent's Hedi Slimane won't work in Paris. Instead, he'll design YSL from his current home base, Los Angeles.

YSL will keep its atelier and offices on Avenue George V in Paris open, and Slimane will do fittings for shows there. But the bulk of the creative work will be done in LA, where Slimane has lived since he left Dior Homme in 2007.

Slimane, who took over for former YSL creative director Stefano Pilati in March, isn't the only designer who lives and works in two different places. Phoebe Philo designs the French label Céline from London, and Pucci's Peter Dundas commutes from his apartment in Paris to his office in Florence, Italy, several times a week.

Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.

• Sophie Dahl's 2001 ad for Yves Saint Laurent's fragrance Opium has been named the eighth most offensive ad of all time by the British Advertising Standards Authority. The ASA agreed with some 948 complaints about the image of Dahl's naked body when the ad was released, saying that it was "sexually suggestive and, in an untargeted medium, likely to cause widespread offense." [Vogue UK]
  

• Kim France, the founder and former editor in chief of Lucky who started a blog called Girls of a Certain Age in December 2011, says she's not exactly comfortable with her new job description yet. "It feels very strange to me, the notion of people asking me what I do for a living, and at 48 to say, 'I'm a blogger.'" [The New York Times]
  

• Shopbop has added a feature that allows shoppers to look at sunglasses from all angles. Dragging your cursor across the screen turns the head of a model wearing dark lenses from Elizabeth and James, Matthew Williamson, and Rag & Bone, to name a few. [Shopbop]
  

• Tommy Hilfiger says he's always looked up to Karl Lagerfeld as a designer, who told him that he innovated Chanel by "looking at Coco Chanel's archives" and "making all of her designs relevant for today," he said. "So I wasn't doing anything dissimilar by taking all the American classics and making them relevant for today." [Style.com]