FLOAT 100 · Handbags · No. 80
Saint Laurent Loulou Medium
Anthony Vaccarello's first breakout bag at Saint Laurent borrowed its name from Yves Saint Laurent's most bohemian muse and arrived just as padded, quilted leather was about to take over the decade.
- Year
- current
- Maker
- Saint Laurent
- By price in handbags
- 76 of 100
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- Saint Laurent, Paris; made in Italy
- Designer
- Anthony Vaccarello, creative director since 2016
- Introduced
- 2017
- Named for
- Loulou de la Falaise (1947-2011), Yves Saint Laurent's muse and jewelry designer
- Leather
- Calfskin quilted in a chevron "Y" pattern
- Hardware
- Interlocking YSL logo on the flap; sliding chain-and-leather strap
- Sizes
- Toy, small, medium and large
- U.S. retail
- $2,150 for the medium in leather in June 2020; $3,100 for the Y-quilted calfskin medium in October 2026
A muse's name on a new flap bag
Anthony Vaccarello became creative director of Saint Laurent in 2016, after Hedi Slimane's departure, and introduced the Loulou in 2017 as one of his early designs. He worked within the accessories language Slimane had established; a handbag site described the Loulou as a continuation of ideas from the house's Monogramme line, given a softer, more elevated treatment.
The bag combined three things that were becoming popular at once: puffy, padded leather, a flap closure and a chain strap. Its chevron quilting is known as Y quilting, and the flap carries the YSL Cassandre logo, designed by the poster artist A. M. Cassandre; one history of the house dates the logos to 1963.
Three years after launch, a handbag guide noted that the padded-leather trend the Loulou had caught was still showing up everywhere. One early owner put it more bluntly in the comments: now the puffy flap is everywhere.
Who was Loulou?
Loulou de la Falaise was born Louise Vava Lucia Henriette Le Bailly de La Falaise in England on May 4, 1947, the daughter of a French count and writer and the Anglo-Irish model Maxime Birley. She was said to have been baptized not with holy water but with Shocking, the perfume by Elsa Schiaparelli.
In the late 1960s she moved to New York, modeled briefly for Vogue and designed printed fabrics for Halston, then worked as a junior editor at the British magazine Queen, where she met Yves Saint Laurent. She joined his couture house in Paris in 1972. Her official job was to bring her eccentric style to accessories and jewelry, and she produced chunky designs with large colored stones, enamel and rock crystal; her own changing wardrobe, from purple velvet flares one week to plucked, Marlene-style crescent brows the next, also fed his work. The writer Judith Thurman called her the quintessential Rive Gauche haute bohemienne. She died in 2011.
Saint Laurent still invokes her. For spring/summer 2025 Vaccarello named looks after the women in Yves Saint Laurent's life, and one of them was called Loulou.
2017: a new hand at an old house
The Loulou arrived at a turning point for Saint Laurent. Slimane had rebranded the ready-to-wear line as Saint Laurent, dropping "Yves," while keeping "Yves Saint Laurent" and the YSL monogram for accessories.
Outside fashion, 2017 was the year Emmanuel Macron won the French presidency and Britain formally began Brexit negotiations. The Loulou went on to become one of the house's most popular bags season after season.
Sizes, leathers and how to identify one
The Loulou comes in four sizes: toy, small, medium and large. A June 2020 guide listed the medium in leather at $2,150, with monochrome hardware at $2,190, and in suede or lambskin at $2,150. The same guide gave the medium's dimensions as 10.5 by 12.5 by 4.3 inches.
A current U.S. listing for the Loulou medium in Y-quilted calfskin describes a detachable chain-and-leather strap that can be worn single or doubled for a drop of 8.7 to 17.7 inches, a flap with snap closure, the interlocking YSL logo, gold-tone hardware, an interior flap pocket, a removable pouch and pocket mirror, and a grosgrain lining, made in Italy. It gives the size as about 11.4 by 6.7 by 3.1 inches, smaller than the 2020 figures, so buyers comparing older and newer bags should check the measurements.
Saint Laurent also now sells a Loulou medium in matelasse lambskin with chevron topstitching, bronze-toned hardware, a cotton lining, a magnetic snap, one flat pocket, a removable pouch and a mirror, measuring 29 by 17 by 8 cm, at $3,100. This entry covers the black Y-quilted leather version.
From $2,150 to $3,100
Like most current luxury bags, the Loulou has become steadily more expensive. The medium in leather was $2,150 in June 2020; in October 2026 a U.S. department store listed the Y-quilted calfskin medium at $3,100, the same price Saint Laurent's own site gave for the matelasse lambskin medium.
The Loulou has been made in a wide range of leathers, suedes, metallic finishes and seasonal colors, so most examples are anything but rare.
The flap that defined Vaccarello's Saint Laurent
Introduced the year after Vaccarello arrived, the Loulou remains one of the brand's most popular bags. Its name keeps alive Loulou de la Falaise, who joined Yves Saint Laurent in 1972 and was still beside him when he retired in 2002.
The numbers
- Dimensions (2026 listing)
- About 11.4 x 6.7 x 3.1 in
- Dimensions (2020 guide)
- 10.5 x 12.5 x 4.3 in
- Material
- Y-quilted calfskin; grosgrain lining
- Hardware
- Interlocking YSL logo; gold-tone hardware on current listing; black and other finishes also made
- Strap
- Sliding chain-and-leather strap, 8.7 to 17.7 in drop
- Included
- Removable pouch and pocket mirror
- Production quantity
- Not published; a standing production model
Timeline
Loulou de la Falaise is born in England.
Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge found the house.
A. M. Cassandre designs the house's logos, by Wikipedia's dating.
Loulou de la Falaise joins Yves Saint Laurent's couture house in Paris.
Yves Saint Laurent retires.
Loulou de la Falaise dies.
Hedi Slimane returns as creative director and renames the ready-to-wear line Saint Laurent.
Slimane leaves; Anthony Vaccarello is named creative director.
Vaccarello introduces the Loulou.
The Loulou medium in leather retails at $2,150 in the U.S.
Vaccarello's spring/summer 2025 show names a look Loulou.
The Y-quilted calfskin Loulou medium is listed at $3,100 in the U.S.
The world in 2017
President Trump signs an executive order barring travel from seven Muslim-majority countries.
The United Kingdom triggers Article 50, starting Brexit negotiations.
Emmanuel Macron wins the French presidential election.
A total solar eclipse crosses the entire contiguous United States.
Hurricane Maria strikes Puerto Rico two weeks after Hurricane Irma.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 30, 2020 | $2,150 | Asking price, not a saleU.S. retail price for the Loulou medium in leather with standard hardware, per a handbag guide. |
| Oct 3, 2026 | $3,100 | Asking price, not a saleU.S. department store retail price for the Loulou medium in Y-quilted calfskin with gold-tone hardware. |
This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.
By reference price, Saint Laurent Loulou Medium is number 76 of 100 in the handbags entries of the FLOAT 100. 19 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (80 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- Loulou de la Falaise was reputedly baptized with Elsa Schiaparelli's perfume Shocking instead of holy water.
- Before joining Yves Saint Laurent she designed printed fabrics for Halston in New York.
- The Loulou's chevron quilting forms rows of the letter Y.
- The bag comes with a removable pouch and a pocket mirror.
- Saint Laurent's spring/summer 2025 show named one of its looks Loulou as well.
- Loulou de la Falaise's grandfather was the portrait painter Sir Oswald Birley.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 3, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026