Saint Laurent has leased the building at 30 bis Rue Spontini in Paris that sheltered the legendary designer’s original haute couture house, sources told WWD.
Exactly what the Kering-owned fashion house plans to do with the historic venue could not immediately be learned.
Saint Laurent officials could not be reached for comment.
Yves Saint Laurent’s move into the Rue Spontini was front-page news in WWD on Nov. 22, 1961, the article recounting that the “house used to belong to the famous French caricaturist Jean-Louis Forain, who died in 1931.”
It also noted that the premises were in need of remodeling ahead of the couturier’s debut presentation on Jan. 29, 1962.
Princess Anne, the Baroness de Rothschild, Roland Petit, Zizi Jeanmaire, Geneviève Fath and Françoise Sagan were among those who witnessed Saint Laurent’s first couture collection, after an acclaimed stint as the successor to Christian Dior at the House of Dior.
For more than a decade Rue Spontini became synonymous with Yves Saint Laurent’s haute couture business, even as he ventured further into ready-to-wear by opening Rive Gauche boutiques.
It was where he first met French actress Catherine Deneuve. “I showed up at Rue Spontini with a photo from the previous year’s Russian collection, which he agreed to make for me,” Deneuve would later recall, that outfit sparking “a long professional collaboration and friendship.”
In 1974, Saint Laurent and his business partner Pierre Bergé moved the couture house from Rue Spontini to a hôtel particulier at 5 Avenue Marceau which dates back to the Second Empire.
Saint Laurent would retire in 2002 and close the couture house, at which time the Avenue Marceau building was reconfigured into the Fondation Pierre Bergé–Yves Saint Laurent. Since 2017, it has been the site of the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris.
Eagle-eyed observers may have noticed that Saint Laurent captured some looks from its fall-winter 2023 men’s collection on Rue Spontini, the street sign slightly blurred in the background as a model in a long black trench coat strides by.
Creative director Anthony Vaccarello returned to the Paris runway for Saint Laurent menswear earlier this month, parading a mostly black, very soigné collection inspired partly by the late legendary designer’s personal style.
According to official documents about the building obtained by WWD, ownership has passed through several members of the same family over the years. It has a footprint of about 2,400 square feet, counts four floors and boasts tall and expansive windows on the second and top floors.
- With contributions from Lily Templeton
