September 30, 2025 |
Does it get any more French than this? Paris at dusk, the Eiffel Tower twinkling as a backdrop and a fierce group of leather and silk-clad women cruising a secret flower garden. (Drone footage revealed it to be a supersized YSL Cassandra logo spelled, out in hydrangeas). With the strong-shouldered silhouettes, giant jewels, diaphanous gowns and sunglasses worn at night, Anthony Vaccarello took his queues from the libidinous Seventies and Eighties YSL era. His Saint Laurent woman is a fearless, untouchable creature who exudes big cat, nocturnal energy and she dresses like the female equivalent of a leather daddy on the prowl.
The show opened with a parade of women in oversized black leather biker jackets and pencil skirts, some worn with white blouses with sharp architectural bows. Nothing soft and cuddly about this look. Filmy safari dresses and sleeveless semi-transparent silk trenches (possibly worn with nothing underneath) brought a new sophistication to the idea of a flasher mac. They came in butterscotch, blueberry, olive green and of course, black. Then the looks segued into evening, where Saint Laurent’s grandeur knows no bounds. Models stalked in decadent frilled puff-sleeved gowns in ravishing shades of berry and bronze. In the Eighties these would have been superstructures, made in heavy silk or heavy in taffeta. In Vaccarello’s hands they were magically light, with models enveloped in weightless volumes trailing dramatic cape-like gowns in their wake.
Photography courtesy of Saint Laurent.
