The French designer Yves Saint Laurent first attracted the fashion world's attention in 1958, when he showed his first collection, the Trapeze Collection, which he had created while working for the Christian Dior fashion house. He established his own couture house in Paris in 1962 with his partner, Pierre Bergé. His success in couture eventually led to the marketing of a ready-to-wear line that was sold through boutiques and department stores worldwide.

The clothing and accessories Yves Saint Laurent created were remarkable from the beginning for their refined and modern elegance, but he had an unmistakably fashion-forward streak, often bringing street styles into his designer fashions, and practicing his keen color sense at every opportunity.

In an industry more often marked by one-hit wonders and flashes in the pan, Yves Saint Laurent maintained both his presence and his signature style in the fashion world for nearly half a century, till his retirement from the business in 2002. His fashion line lives on to this day, carried forward by designers devoted to keeping his vision alive.

Yves Saint Laurent handbags are made in the same tradition as his clothing and other accessories, and they uphold the same high standards of style, sophistication, and fine craftsmanship. Consequently, they carry correspondingly high price tags, ranging between $1,000 and $2,000 each. Many have tried to imitate the YSL look, but there simply is no substitute for a genuine Yves Saint Laurent handbag.

An authentic Yves Saint Laurent handbag bespeaks its own quality. It is made from first-rate materials and sewn together with painstaking attention to detail. The quality of the lining will match that of the bag. It will fit the interior snugly and smoothly, and will not betray signs of sloppy construction like snags, pulls, puckers, or raveling. The letters of the YLS logo will connect precisely and there will be no color variation among them. The manufacturer’s tag will be stitched inside, not elsewhere on the bag.