Saint Laurent is a radiant French fashion brand with a lot of history. To anyone who knows a bit of fashion, Yves Saint Laurent stands amongst the most creative, unique and iconic fashion designer there ever were in the last century.
At first a fashion prodigy who found himself being the protégé of Pierre Bergé, who helped him financially in addition to being his lifetime partner, Saint Laurent made clothes for women, amazing women and less amazing women who were changed in goddesses thanks to him.
In the beginning, Yves Saint Laurent did not make much handbags and so the French brand’s archives are not blank but certainly not full of his bag creations – a few iconic pieces, that it.
Tom Ford, as he was the brand’s artistic director really was the one to bring YSL bags to the next lever : in the 2000s, he really launched, developed and YSL coined a luxurious collection of bags and shoes. This first impulse gave the following directors new ideas and now Saint Laurent has the most prolific collection of the high fashion big brands.
The French brand has since very much made up for their being late bloomers as far as handbags are concerned and their collections are very often and widely changed, renewed, revisited: with Hedi Slimane in 2013, the brand lost the “Yves” from its name but not its DNA and so did the handbags.
Still adorned in with the YSL signature, they were completed by the new logo and fresh spirit of the head designer who really got a level up… and the level went up again with today’s Saint Laurent designer, Anthony Vaccarello.
Saint Laurent’s handbags are precious and rock and roll, and so are their handbags. With a touch of streetwear, Anthony Vaccarello managed to create some pieces that are very Lady like and others which your sulky teenage niece would actually enjoy as much as your mom with a way less sassy style.
With no less that forty backpacks and 7 big collections – all unisex, yay! – Saint Laurent offers much choice… and I picked my four favourites for you to decide!
Saint Laurent’s Teddy backpack: the luxury grocery shopping bag
Simple everyday pieces twisted into luxury highly desirable items are a very usual thing at Saint Laurent that any designer at the head of the French maison played with.
This Teddy backpack is really the embodiment of this since it rather looks like the kind of bag you would go grocery shopping with or give your kids when they have their swimming class. But here, no water is allowed near that calfskin masterpiece that you will soon crave as much as me!
With Saint Laurent’s Teddy the mood at the creative studio must have been something like: “a pouch, but it fashion and luxury”. In the shape of a protective shoe bag, this bag has no clasp but the upper string that also plays as the two shoulder straps.
Thin and elegant, they will not weigh on your shoulders. Made of calfskin, the bag carries the metallic signature “Saint Laurent” (the 2013’s new logo) and… that’s it. Pureness and simplicity are key.
This Teddy backpack by Saint Laurent is your everyday luxury treasure which no one actually knows about thanks to its very, very low key style and amazingly simple features.
You do not need anything but this cutie to take you through a busy day with style and its very lightweight structure will help you feel very comfy the whole day long. Whether you are a grungy girl or a very classic-addict woman, you can wear and enjoy Teddy all day, every day!
Saint Laurent teddy bucket bag unboxing
Saint Laurent’s City backpack: your teenage years favourite backpack revisited
Backpacks often resonate with our teenage years and high school days, but does not necessarily resonate with style, elegance or luxury-made confection. Many brands have tackled this issue to create good, pretty, sophisticated backpacks and offer a wider choice to elegant women.
What none of them did is quite literally translate all the teenage backpack’s features with great materials, luxury fabrics and leather to offer you the exact replica… but better – and so Saint Laurent did, just for you nostalgic fashionista.
This City backpack – which really well bears its name with its urban and graphic lines – is really the exact shape as your teenage backpack, with more stringency and elegance. On the frint, an exterior zipped pocket with the embossed Saint Laurent logo (2013’s again) with lots of silver nails that give some rock and roll vibe.
The shoulder straps are adjustable and padded for comfort even when your backpack weighs on your back. Available in many colours and features, you can not help but find the one that will suit you most.
Elegant, thin, cool… this backpack is made for your day at work as much as your weekends out in the country side or wandering your city’s museums with friends. Very sleek and simple, this Saint Laurent City backpack was made for for you to enjoy its design just as well as you will enjoy its comfy way to be carried.
The various designs really make up for the City’s simplicity if your are afraid it is too bare a design: there is compulsorily a City that was made for you, I can assure you.
YSL City Backpack Review
Saint Laurent’s Loulou backpack: that padded piece of chic to carry around
“Loulou” refers to Loulou De La Falaise, Yves Saint Laurent’s muse and an everlasting style and character icon for the whole of the Parisiennes still today. Free spirited, delicate and witty, Loulou was really one of the most inspiring person to Saint Laurent as well as a true friend.
With it inner chicness and coolness, its sassy and classy design, the Loulou backpack is truly a legacy of what this brilliant woman brought to Saint Laurent… but turned into a pretty leather backpack!
Loulou’s backpack is a revisitation of the Loulou handbag: a triangular flap, padded leather that iterates the V shape of the flap to become a Y shaped padding (how clever) and the iconic “YSL” signature on the flap.
With a hand handle on the to and two adjustable shoulder staps, that’s about it for design. And that is all we need: easy, simple, chic, well thought with elegant luxury leather and that jewellery-like metallic “YSL” ornamenting the backpack, Loulou is a highly desirable piece.
The Saint Laurent’s Loulou backpack for women in search for elegance and sophistication as much as practicality in a backpack. With its small medium side, padded leather and cool straps, Loulou is as comfortable as it is fashionable.
Made mostly in black, it will suit all your outfits and match your mood in every situation, whether you are going out to have some drinks with friends or going to the work meeting of your carrier. Made for easy-carrying and optimum style, the Loulou backpack is going to be your chouchou, as the French say.
YSL Lou Lou Backpack Review Video
Saint Laurent’s Sac de Jour backpack: elegance and practicality made of luxury leather
As far as Lady’s bags go, Saint Laurent has his fair share of master pieces and this Sac de Jour – “Day bag”, in English – is really in the top three of these bag marvels. Very simple with very luxury details and materials, this Saint Laurent’s backpack has everything a woman with a taste for sophistication wants.
The only risk with this Sac de Jour is that you might not respect what the brand told you and actually want to wear it by day and night and even maybe you are going to go to sleep with it by your side for it is just so pretty.
Made of supple calfskin leather, this backpack is nothing like the City backpack: rectangularly soft (it folds and adapts easily onto your back for an elegant slouchy vibe), it is structured by a flap front on which the Saint Laurent signature is embossed. With adjustable leather shoulder straps and metallic charming details, this backpack is both style and comfort united.
The Sac de Jour is a classic Yves Saint Laurent piece that has been issued as a handbag and then turned into this very chic backpack. Conceived like the ultimate elegant backpack, this Sac de Jour will fit all wardrobes – even the streetwear addict’s ones – and will be you absolute go-to if you are looking for a sophisticated bag to carry around. Made for all women with a sense of elegance, I have no doubt you will fall for it!
Saint Laurent, the prolific backpack house
With a backpack for each style and use, Saint Laurent proves itself very capable of making our lives fashionable, luxury and easy: with this selection, you can see how the span in between graphic streetwear and utterly feminine chic is wide…
And you most probably stopped reading me already to rush to Saint Laurent’s website and pick your favourite backpack from the upper mentioned collection!
