Saint Laurent Ad Campaign Archive 2005 to 2012 Stefano Pilati

A look at the ads from Stefano Pilati for the house of Saint Laurent from Spring 2005 to Spring 2012

Having worked at Yves Saint Laurent on ready-to-wear for four years, Stefano Pilati stepped up to the role of creative director in a moment of mild identity crisis for the house. Tom Ford had transformed the house’s identity from confident, intellectual sophistication to confident, sensual sexuality. The shift paid off financially, but his sudden departure left many wondering how the house could move forward while honoring its foundation.

Pilati rose to the challenge by creating thoughtful, contemporary adaptations of some of Saint Laurent’s most iconic, personal, and visionary designs, like his Le Smoking jacket and tulip skirts. In terms of his advertising communications, Pilati brought the house’s image steadily into the present day, while reviving its most important historical elements.

While Tom Ford’s ads kept things in the studio or the occasional indoor location, Pilati brought things back out into the world and onto the street, echoing an innovation made by Helmut Newton and Saint Laurent himself in the ’80s, but that wasn’t picked up on by his successors. Pilati was the first creative director at the house to work with photographer Juergen Teller, whose candid and energetic street-style photography still largely defines the house’s image to this day, as he works frequently with current creative director Anthony Vaccarello. Similarly, photography duo Inez & Vinoodh, who shot a number of campaigns for Pilati’s collections, have been frequent collaborators of Vaccarello through the past half-decade.

With its emphasis on personality and individuality rather than depersonalized sexuality, Pilati’s Spring 2005 ad feels significantly more modernist and contemporary than Ford’s Fall 2004 ad, only a season before.

Pilati also wisely returned to two of Saint Laurent’s most important and iconic muses, Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss. Pilati’s ads in general were marked by smart casting choices of strong personalities, featuring the likes of Karen Elson, Mariacarla Boscono, Gisele Bündchen, Du Juan, and Natalia Vodianova – titans of modeling who still define the modern landscape.

Though his time at the house was not as commercially or critically successful – or as controversial – as the creative directors that preceded and followed him, Pilati is perhaps the most responsible for the continuity of the house’s identity. Entering the Saint Laurent timeline at an inflection point, he smartly balanced past, present, and future, crafting the house’s image into a strong personality that is recognizable today.

Spring 2005

Creative Director Thomas Lenthal, Photographer Juergen Teller, Model Karen Elson