BEAUTY: Clothing--Saint Laurent

And to kick off Paris Week, here is the SS '26 collection from Anthony Vaccarello at Saint Laurent who was inspired by a photo of a young Yves Saint Laurent playing tennis on holiday in Nigeria--he wore wide-legged cuffed shorts and a long sleeve camp shirt. That combined in Vaccarello's imagination with the idea of Saint Laurent having a grand time with his friends in Marrakesh 1974, superimposed over the idea of similar groups of young gay men--including many influential gay artists--having the same wonderful time on Fire Island in the 80s, before the plague. Put that all in a blender with some amazing, compelling colors (they all seem to have the same grey value) and you get garments with shoulders so sharp you could cut your finger on 'em, and ties worn twisted and tucked into the third button. The look is crisp, commanding, nearly uniform-like, yet off kilter just enough with the addition of the colors so as to be uncategorizable.

Taking place in the rotunda of the Bourse de Commerce in Paris, Vaccarello's usual venue, models walked around a stunning art installation explained in the show notes:

"For the Summer 2026 menswear show, Anthony Vaccarello evokes a suspended moment, somewhere between Paris and Fire Island, where escape became elegance, and desire became a language.

This collection pays tribute to a lost generation, to the artists — Stanton, Angus, Ellis — who gave a face to silent desires.
And to Yves Saint Laurent, of course, who in 1974 sought refuge, only to create anew.

Inspired by a time when desire was style,
when beauty served as a shield against emptiness,
the collection explores this subtle sensuality, that fragile moment when one dresses as much to reveal oneself as to hide.

Ambiguity becomes elegance.

For this collection, Anthony Vaccarello chooses not the night, but the clarity of the afternoon light.
A deliberate rupture.
No artificial glow.
Just dry light. Full presence.
A geometry of exposure.
Not to display — but to hold.

The collection unfolds around clinamen, an installation by Céleste Boursier-Mougenot:
a circular basin where porcelain bowls drift and collide, drawing invisible lines across water, producing resonance without choreography.

Silhouettes are sculpted, not exaggerated.
Cinched waists. Extended shoulders.
Materials that trace without clinging: silk, nylon.
The palette is hushed — sand, salt, pale ochre, dry moss, pool blue.

Nothing is declarative.
Everything is held.
A sensuality without theatre.

Shorts evoke those once worn by a young Yves, but there’s no reference here.
Only recurrence.

The space breathes. The fabric breathes. The bodies do not explain.

1974, Yves Saint Laurent withdrew.
2026, the line remains.

Not homage. Not memory.
Continuity."

https://www.ysl.com