Saint Laurent Spring 2026 Collection
Anthony Vaccarello marked his 30th show at Saint Laurent with a spectacular set: a vast French garden erected at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, its hedges carved into the shape of the Cassandre logo, and the air laced with the scent of the house’s iconic Opium fragrance. “I wanted to remind everyone: when you’re at Saint Laurent, there’s no mistaking it,” he said backstage.
While this European season has been dominated by headline-grabbing debuts, Vaccarello opted for confidence and clarity, focusing on being “as YSL as possible.” The result was a rich exploration of the brand’s signature provocative femininity. Models channelled multiple archetypes: leather-clad Mapplethorpe muses, Robert Palmer girls in airy trenches with little underneath, and Belle Époque duchesses in ruffled gowns and puffed sleeves running through the hedges.
Historical and cultural references anchored the narrative. Vaccarello cited Françoise Giroud’s famous line from the 1970s that the YSL woman was “disheveled by day, a countess by night.” He revisited the Proust Ball of 1971 and Yves’s designs for Nan Kempner, Jane Birkin, and Hélène Rochas, while also drawing from Isabelle Adjani’s “La Reine Margot” and the subversive elegance of Paris’s leather-clad nightlife in the 1980s. For the first time, Vaccarello tapped into the maison’s historical archives, describing them as “inexhaustible.”
The clothes balanced drama with utility: structured leather jackets, sharp pencil skirts, oversized cotton poplin blouses with plunging ties, and light nylon trenches designed to be rolled up and zipped away like windbreakers. Flowing safari dresses and Belle Époque gowns in sheer nylons further amplified the tension between toughness and fragility.
