Saint Laurent

Yves Saint Laurent didn’t just dress women differently — he changed what a fashion house was, putting couture-level design into ready-to-wear with Rive Gauche in 1966 and putting women in the tuxedo the same year. The archive he left is arguably the most referenced in fashion: le smoking, the Mondrian shift, the safari jacket, the sheer blouse — garments that turned androgyny and ease into French luxury’s default setting.

Under Kering’s ownership the house has become one of the group’s pillars, and Vaccarello’s decade has been defined by fidelity to the founder’s silhouette — razor shoulders, long legs, black, and Paris at night — staged in monumental outdoor shows beneath the Eiffel Tower that have become a fixture of the week. His Saint Laurent is less reinvention than distillation: the founder’s codes, cut sharper each season.