For the last few seasons Anthony Vaccarello’s Saint Laurent has staged their shows on the Trocadero, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. It’s a very dramatic setting, yet he has continued to push further, enough is never enough. His models have literally walked on water. Have come enclosed in UV light boxes. Here a thousand lights illuminated the runway, beaming brilliantly into the sky. Rain poured across Paris and wind blew through the show space (a space cordoned off for celebrities to have their photos taken blew over at one point). A thousand spectators lined the area around the Trocadero, straining through the weather to get a glimpse at the show.
And then the rain stopped pouring and the wind stopped blowing and the lights formed an arc across the runway. It was the most dramatic of settings for the most dramatic of fashion spectacles. A pure, heartfelt homage to the sexy, Parisian past of Yves Saint Laurent seen through Anthony’s very modern eye. “It’s a Rive Gauche way of seeing clothes, a combination of the most iconic codes,” the show notes said. It came boxy and squared off, big suit jackets, blouses cut to the navel, shorts barely visible or sexily, awkwardly elongated. Knee high leather boots, big lapelled shirts, barely there waistcoats. Luxurious brocades, gold embroideries, leopard print and leather. This was Anthony at his most virtuoso, playing the best of Yves.
If that first section of the show wasn’t enough, the last 30 looks paid tribute Saint Laurent’s perfection of tailoring and tuxedos. It was an homage to the city’s “elegant masculine-feminine tailoring”. Lead out by Stella Tennant, the not-quite-a-finale was a tour de force of sparkle-encrusted suiting. Cut sheer, short, skinny-trousered, baggy-shorted, it was a show of expertise. “Saint Laurent is as much about attitude as it is spectacle,” and for the final moment of spectacle? Naomi Campbell walking out to close the show. Earlier that day she’d posted on her Instagram how influential the late designer had been — “Mr. Yves Saint Laurent you believed in me and stood by my side when I needed it most!!” Grateful for you and for all the memories we’ve made together over the years.. Kind hearted, creative genius and fashion visionary!”
Credits
Photography Mitchell Sams