The Tom Ford for Yves Saint Laurent Smoking Box: Patent Leather and Silver Tone

Few houses are as closely linked with the idea of smoking as Yves Saint Laurent. The word itself, in French, names the dinner jacket, and in 1966 Saint Laurent gave that jacket to women as "le smoking". This small box in black patent leather, with its silver-tone lighter, was made for the house in 2001, during the years when Tom Ford designed its ready-to-wear and accessories.

Le Smoking

Saint Laurent's women's tuxedo of 1966 was a black evening suit cut on the lines of men's formal dress. It was not an immediate success in couture, but it found its audience in ready-to-wear and became one of the designs most associated with the house. The dinner jacket, the cigarette and the evening hour belong to the same image of Parisian elegance that YSL built in the 1960s and 1970s.

Tom Ford at Yves Saint Laurent

Tom Ford, born in Texas in 1961, had been creative director of Gucci since 1994. When the Gucci Group acquired Yves Saint Laurent in 1999, Ford also became creative director of the YSL ready-to-wear line, a role he held until he left the group in 2004. His YSL collections reworked the house's codes, including tailoring, black and evening glamour, in a sharper and more sensual way.

Accessories were an important part of that work. Alongside bags and jewellery, Ford's YSL produced small luxury objects, and smoking accessories of the period, such as cases and lighters, appear regularly in the resale market.

The design

The box is small, 10 by 6 by 3 centimetres, and made of black patent leather with silver-tone metalware. It opens with a clutch closure carrying logo details, and it can be carried on a black patent leather string, so that it works as a little purse as well as a case. The lighter, 8 by 2 by 1 centimetres, is in silver-tone metal and carries a signature.

Patent leather has a high gloss that suits evening accessories. It is also sensitive: it can crease, take marks from other materials and lose its shine at the edges.

The object

The Archivary describes the set as a 2001 smoking box and purse from Yves Saint Laurent designed by Tom Ford, in black patent leather with silver-tone metalware, a clutch closure with logo details, a black patent leather string and a silver-tone lighter with signature. It is recorded in very good condition, with light signs of wear, and comes with its original pouch.