BEAUTY: Clothing--Saint Laurent

Anthony Vaccarello, creative director at Saint Laurent (YSL) decided to show his Fall-Winter '25-'26 men' collection off the usual Paris Fashion Week schedule (and oddly, smack dab in the middle of women's fashion week, but whatever). He staged the show at the Bourse de Commerce, an incredible circular structure in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, one of his favorite spots for shows (see previous YSL shows here). With inspiration for past collections coming from touchstones of gay culture like French author Jean Genet and the Rainer Werner Fassbinder film adaptation of Genet's novel "Querelle," Vaccarello once again looks to gay culture. This time, he imagined a fictitious meeting between Yves and subversive photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. While there is no recorded proof, it is at least possible that the two met at some point: Mapplethorpe photographed a 1983 catalog for YSL.

But it is this juxtaposition, this mash-up if you will, of YSL's high fashion and Mapplethorpe's unapologetic leather fetish wear (here) that creates the tension in this collection. Men wear blazers of boxy, 80s proportions with wide shoulders (leather trench coats and bomber jackets also make an appearance) but with black leather wader boots that come up nearly to the femoral artery! Vaccarello says it's a look "where you’re respectable on the top, but dirty on the way down." The collection ended with an evening look: double breasted tux jacket, satin lapels, but with the obligatory waders. It doesn't get more mashy-uppy than that!

https://www.ysl.com/