Yves Saint Laurent was the dark spot in yesterday's otherwise confident public debut of Robert Polet, the former Unilever ice cream man recently appointed to head the Gucci luxury group. Not only because he admitted its stores were too dark, but because he could still not say when the French fashion brand would finally break even.

At least he was honest, resisting the temptation to fall into his predecessors' trap of making unrealistic forecasts. Since acquiring it in 1999 and subsequently merging it with Gucci, the French PPR retail conglomerate has made heavy weather of YSL.