By Dara Clariza Evangelista
Saint Laurent has always thrived on tension, elegance meeting edge, allure sharpened by provocation. Creative director Anthony Vaccarello has leaned into that legacy with his Spring 2026 show in Paris.
Set against the backdrop of a vast French garden erected beneath the glittering Eiffel Tower, the collection unfolded like a living tableau of everything the house has stood for since its inception. Leather-clad figures strode with power, trench coats dissolved into filmy transparency, and ruffled gowns billowed with duchess-in-distress drama. Every look seemed designed to remind guests of one truth: this is Saint Laurent, unmistakably.
The atmosphere was heavy with references. Vaccarello pulled from the house’s storied archives, from Opium perfume to costumes once crafted for icons like Jane Birkin and Nan Kempner. He even reimagined the toughness of ’80s leather daddies, translating it into sharp pencil skirts and biker jackets, while also conjuring the romantic excess of Belle Époque gowns. The set itself revealed an homage too, overhead drone shots showed the hedges arranged into the iconic Cassandre logo.
The collection balanced extremes: strict tailoring softened by vaporous nylons, meaty leather jackets juxtaposed with delicate white cotton blouses tied in low-slung bows. Each look felt transportable, some pieces could literally be folded into zippered pouches, but still rich with the drama that defines YSL.
Front-row cameos from Madonna, Catherine Deneuve, and Betty Catroux deepened the show’s nostalgia, while the younger generation, Hailey Bieber, Zoë Kravitz, Charli XCX, embodied its relevance.
After 30 collections at the helm, Vaccarello has proven his instinct: being “as YSL as possible” is not about repetition, but about reasserting identity in every stitch. The Spring 2026 show wasn’t just a spectacle, it was a statement that Saint Laurent remains the house of seductive contradictions.
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Jasmine Curtis-Smith is on the cover of STYLISH Magazine right now, as she shares her thoughts on good storytelling in films, as she’s set to star in upcoming movies Open Night, a 2025 Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival sapphic film entry; and Manila’s Finest, an upcoming 2025 Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) crime drama movie.
Read the Stylish Magazine September-October 2025 cover story here.
Watch out for a new #StylishPodcast episode featuring our cover girl Jasmine Curtis-Smith, dropping soon on Facebook and YouTube.
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