Anthony Vaccarello opened Saint Laurent’s Spring/Summer 2027 show with a bomber jacket and pencil skirt, familiar clothes, except that both were gold. Under the chandeliers at the Trocadéro, with the Eiffel Tower illuminated behind them, they established the evening’s premise: almost anything could be gilded.
Gold can overwhelm a collection. It carries associations with wealth, ceremony and costume before a designer has even cut the fabric. Vaccarello gave it the shapes he knows well: jackets broad through the shoulders and narrow at the waist, skirts fitted over the hips, necklines framed by trailing chiffon scarves. The proportions kept the eye occupied once the initial shine had registered.
The opening bomber had volume above a close-fitting skirt, its central slit allowing movement. Safari jackets, bikers and trench coats followed. Clothes associated with practical purposes became conspicuously impractical in their metallic finishes. That transformation was one of the collection’s pleasures. A gold trench retains enough of its everyday outline to make the extravagance feel slightly absurd, and therefore desirable.
Texture did much of the work. Crinkled surfaces interrupted the shine; brocade gave it density; lace allowed skin to show through. Cropped jackets and trousers extended the proposition beyond evening dresses. Repeating the colour made differences in cut and fabrication unusually visible. It also risked exhausting the idea, particularly when successive looks offered another variation on the same fitted skirt.
The final ten looks changed to black, introducing broad-shouldered jackets and expansive gowns. Charlotte Gainsbourg performed after the runway sequence. Coming ten years after Vaccarello’s first Saint Laurent show, the evening invited speculation about a farewell. His departure remains unconfirmed.
There was another telling detail: no handbags appeared on the runway. The clothes had to sustain the image themselves.
That is perhaps the strongest argument for this collection. Vaccarello has spent a decade making Saint Laurent immediately identifiable through proportion, styling and attitude. Here, he changed the surface dramatically while keeping that identity intact. Gold supplied the occasion. The bomber, the skirt and the sharp jacket explained whose occasion it was.
For more stories of fashion, visit our dedicated archives and follow us on Instagram.
