Saint Laurent severs ties with Colette

By

Florent Gilles

Published
Oct 3, 2013

Saint Laurent has ended a 15 year business relationship with famous Paris independent retailer Colette after the store sold t-shirts with the slogan ‘Ain’t Laurent without Yves’ on its e-store, an obvious no to label’s recent re-branding since Hedi Slimane arrived at the design helm. According to the brand, the t-shirts are infringing on copyrights and are damaging to the Saint Laurent image.

The store’s manager was contacted by the brand earlier in September to remove the t-shirts from the site to which she agreed to do, but said she would off-load remaining stock in the store.

At the end of September, Kering addressed a letter to Sarah Andelman, artistic director and head of buying at Colette, to tell her they had cancelled her spring-summer 2014 menswear order. Andelman, daughter of the store’s founder, said that she feel ‘excommunicated’ by Saint Laurent and did not attend the label’s show on Monday night at the Grand Palais.