Shaping Brand Identity Through Metaphoric Connotation: The Case of Yves Saint Laurent

Abstract

This article examines the role of creative metaphors coined by Yves Saint Laurent, the brand founder, as mechanisms in constructing the brand identity. Grounded in Conceptual Integration Theory, the study examines how Saint Laurent’s metaphorical discourse fuses conceptual domains such as fashion, art, love, freedom, and happiness to produce rich connotations that shape the brand’s self-presentation and emotional appeal. The study object is the creative metaphors of the founder of the YSL brand. The study aims to analyze metaphors through the lens of conceptual integration theory as a mechanism for constructing brand identity. The analysis reveals that these metaphors function not only as stylistic semasiological devices that generate emotionally resonant meanings, but are also powerful semiotic tools through which the brand encodes values and communicates its distinct identity. By blending conceptual domains related to clothing and fashion, as well as the core values of the brand and its target consumer identity, the metaphors construct emergent meanings that contribute to connotations that embody the brand identity. Expressions like “a pencil stroke”, “a passport for happiness”, or “the arms of the man she loves” construct a layered metaphorical narrative in which the brand is positioned as a source of aesthetic refinement, emotional transformation, and existential fulfillment. The connotative network associated with the brand’s identity and its underlying mythology encompasses the values of happiness, freedom, confidence, self-realization, love, individuality, as well as conceptual oppositions that resonate with the oxymoronic logic of the brand identity — such as complexity in simplicity and strength in femininity. Crucially, the metaphors articulate identity positions for the consumer, implying that engaging with the brand enables one to access internal states such as confidence, individuality, and romantic completeness. In this way, the brand identity is shaped through symbolic projection: the values encoded in the metaphors — creativity, elegance, sensuality, and freedom — are internalized by the audience as part of their identity narrative. By foregrounding the founder’s metaphorical imagination, the study highlights how brand identity emerges not only from visual design or product quality but from the symbolic and emotional universe evoked through language. The metaphors of Yves Saint Laurent construct a coherent and compelling myth for the brand — one that fuses cultural ideals with personal aspirations, thereby ensuring the brand’s enduring emotional relevance and symbolic power.