dear all , i'm new to this site and i find it absolutely fascinating - all the inside info that one could ever desire , as i've been a fashion junkie for more years than i care to remember ! imho there are ONLY two candidates for ysl rive gauche - the first beingCLAUDE MONTANA as he has that french 'je ne sais quoi' quirkiness of aesthetic that one finds that only the french possess eg look at peugeot , renault ,phillippe starck ,alain mikli et al. gone are the days of his arrogance that resulted in his fall from grace in the mid 90's after personal tragedy and financial troubles. the baseball shoulders have gone along with the 80's (although katie grand and scott henshall brought them back in their work for bottega veneta pre the gucci takeover ! ).remember his superb leathers for ideal cuir and his equally acclaimed work for lanvin couture ? the only other candidate would be HEDI SLIMANE as he has yves talent for tailoring and if the press reports are to be believed it's tom ford's lack of daywear in his ysl collections that have helped his demise.ysl rive gauche ,at the moment = gucci ,it is NOT PARIS but residing in that neverland that is milan-los angeles. i have an extensive collection of vintage saint laurent rive gauche pieces and the present clothes cannot match the esoteric originals in any way ! these are menswear by the way ,but the men's line always followed the women's -remember the ethnic middle european collections of the mid 70's ? i would be interested to see what you 'insiders' think !