Kate
The most evening of Saint Laurent's bags — a slim flap, a polished Cassandre, and a chain tassel that swings.
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Story & heritage
The Kate is perhaps the most evening of all Saint Laurent's handbags — a slim, structured flap bag that distils the house's after-dark glamour into a single sharp silhouette. Its face carries the Cassandre monogram, the interlocking YSL drawn by A. M. Cassandre for the house in the early 1960s, here cast in polished metal at the centre of the flap.
Introduced in the Hedi Slimane years and carried forward by Anthony Vaccarello, the Kate became a signature of the rebranded Saint Laurent: lean, glossy and rock-inflected. The version with a swinging chain tassel hanging from the monogram is the one most associated with the bag — a small piece of movement that catches the light and reads instantly as Saint Laurent on a dance floor.
Materials & craft
The Kate is built in smooth calfskin or glossy croc-embossed leather over a structured, flat body that holds its sharp rectangular line. The Cassandre monogram is rendered in metal — gold-, silver- or aged-tone — and on the tassel versions a chain tassel is fixed to its base, finished to swing freely. The bag hangs from a slim curb-link chain that can be worn on the shoulder or doubled; the New Kate updates the format with a thinner chain and refined hardware. Made in Italy.
How to choose & style
The tassel version is the wow-factor pick — black calfskin with gold hardware reads as the house's classic evening bag, the tassel adding swish to black-tie. The clutch form drops the strap entirely for the most formal nights. For day, the New Kate Small on its chain is sleek enough to disappear under tailoring. Glossy croc-effect leather pushes the bag toward statement; matte black keeps it discreet.
