Hasta La Ideas

Did you know that Yves Saint Laurent has its own line of cigarettes? It’s not only true, but they’ve apparently been around since 1989, largely sold in specialty shops in Europe and more readily in Asia. Not designed or made directly by the company, it’s a fairly typical, yet somehow surprising, licensing deal. Now the brand has gotten a recent reboot, with new packaging, updating the previous red and blue box that looks a bit like a cross between a lounge at the Four Seasons and something Ralph Lauren would design if Ralph Lauren designed cigarette boxes. The new box is jet black, with small gold type and a similarly hued interior. The redesign was reportedly done to help boost appeal with women in Asia and Russia, where the company is focusing a new push for the cigarettes, and where the laws and stigma against smoking aren’t nearly as prevailing as they are here in the US and ever-escalating in Europe. Shocked and dismayed that YSL has its own cigarette? Well maybe you’d like to know that “Givenchy, Versace, Pierre Cardin [no surprise there], Christian Lacroix and Cartier have also been in the tobacco game at one point or another.” Should you want to stock up on YSL’s newest carcinogens, they can be purchased by the carton, here.

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