"You sometimes think, at the bleary end of a runway season, that fashion would be better off if companies didn't have labels to sell. Take Saint Laurent. One of the first things the new designer, Hedi Slimane, did was to remove 'Yves' from the label, thereby severing a symbolic connection to the founder, and everything he stood for, like good taste and feminine power. But it was also a test of the label's enduring appeal."