Yves Saint Laurent will forever be associated with Paris’s Left Bank, and today it’s been announced that the entire company will be moving back to its spiritual home. Creative Director Hedi Slimane will maintain his studio in Los Angeles, but the wider relocation shows the current company’s respect for their heritage and will appease those who were shocked when Slimane decided to drop the “Yves” from the brand name when he joined in 2012.
The YSL couture house moved to the Hotel de Senecterre at 24 Rue de l’Universite in January last year, and soon the rest of the company will be situated in the nearby Penthemont Cistercian Abbey at 37 Rue de Bellechasse. The full restoration work required means that it’s a long project, with the final move-in date not expected to be until 2018. The Abbey dates back to 1671 and since then has been a barracks and the head offices of the Ministry of Defence. The current couture house is marginally younger, being built in 1688, and as well as the atelier, houses a collection of modernist art, African masks and modern furniture.