Brand evaluation

Brand Evaluation

My chosen brand is Yves Saint Laurent and I personally feel as if this brand was best suite for me and I’ve had no regrets since picking it. Beginning my research it was interesting to see the history of the brand and how it was started, to see what financial and creative struggles the brand had to face. How designer Tom Ford helped the brand out of it’s hardships and the iconic products and garments the brand has created. I like how products such as Touché Éclat and Opium are still just as iconic as they were when they were released, years ago. 

Researching the brand in recent years it has been interesting to see how the fashions have changed with the most recent Creative Director, Hedi Slimane. How he changed the name of the brand to Saint Laurent Paris, from Yves Saint Laurent. Changed the iconic sexy, sophisticated clothes to more of a grunge, festival feel. I love both of these styles by YSL/Saint Laurent and it still sticks to what the brand tries to achieve for women.

On the beauty side of things, Yves Saint Laurent Beaute has been a top selling cosmetic brand since it’s launch. It carries such iconic products that constantly re invented by the brand like Opium and Black Opium, a younger scent that widens its target audience. Touché éclat has been released in corrector versions, peach, green and purple tones. These are different to the original highlight versions. The beauty brand currently faces with models such as Cara Delevigne and Edie Campbell, which is something that has not changed during the brands time, as it has always used well-known beautiful supermodels or actresses.

Researching the brand has been very easy to do, there seems to be many resources available on the brand, which is helpful. They seem to be a contender and a brand that never disappoints during fashion week with fantastic responses. I love that about a brand.

I believe I have taken into consideration all aspects of the way the brand creates it’s advertisements and well as it’s advertising, it’s editorials and the type of stories they are trying to tell. As well as it’s catwalk looks. Under Hedi Slimane as creative director the brands make-up style has really gone, it’s become very much boring and less in your face. It appears the models aren’t even wearing makeup in the latest Spring Summer collection as well as the editorials. To change this to benefit me, the brief and the unit I decided to add make-up looks that create something that resembles me. Whilst still taking YSL into consideration and myself as a designer.

I took the packaging for the SS 16 make-up collection and used this when creating one of my catwalk looks by attempting to mimic the marble effect on the skin. The price point for YSL beauty seems reasonable for the quality you are getting, the packaging and products resemble something stereotypically of high quality because of the gold and black packaging. The presentation of the brand before Hedi Slimane was nothing but class and sophistication, which oozed sexiness. When Hedi Slimane came into the brand he changed it to more of a younger punk princess type of style in the fashion sense, I believe the beauty brand stayed pretty much the same. The promotion for the beauty brand has remained the same; the way they promote is with magazine editorials, advertisements on Television and in Print, as well as billboard format.  

Over all this has been an exciting unit and such a fun brand to research and create images inspired by. I have thoroughly enjoyed myself.