Yves Saint Laurent (fashion house)

The YSL monogram by Cassandre, early 1960s The graphic artist Cassandre, who had made his name with posters and typefaces, stacked the Y, S and L vertically so the letters overlap into one shape. Accounts date it to 1961 or 1962, around the founding of the house. In 2012 Hedi Slimane dropped the Yves, called the line Saint Laurent Paris and gave it a plain Helvetica wordmark. The Cassandre monogram was not retired: it stayed in use alongside the new name, and it remains the mark people mean when they say YSL. The two coexisting show that a wordmark and a monogram can do different jobs for one house.