The foundations of a house are just as important as reinvention and newness. This is what keeps legacy intact. At a maison like Saint Laurent, foundation is everything. For Fall/Winter 2026, Anthony Vaccarello folded Saint Laurent in on itself with the principles of the house codes: Precision, construction, and a stylistic language that needs no translation.
The sacred cow of Saint Laurent is the black suit. Le tuxedo, le smoking jacket, the proposition of tailoring and the dialogue of masculine and feminine converging. It was natural, then, for a collection said to base itself off of foundation, that Vaccarello would introduce eight single and double breasted suits in varying shades of black and chocolate brown. All expertly cut, all with vague allusions to the '70s and '80s, but not overt enough to bring them out of a contemporary viewpoint. They were slouchy and relaxed and offered a sense of ease and freedom in a traditionally more rigid silhouette.
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Each season, Vaccarello deftly offers a collection broken into three sections, each retaining a grouped silhouette or fabric choice. For his second act, a procession of browns: fur and silicone-covered sheer lace in chocolate, rust, burnt orange and mahogany. There were sheer lace straight skirts paired with tiny camisoles, oversized fur coats secured at the hips with satin ribbons, silicone trench coats, which felt reminiscent of Vaccarello’s weightless nylon trench coats from Spring/Summer 2026, only more glam. Romy Schneider was apparently a reference point here, specifically her 1971 movie, Max et les Ferrailleurs, where her looks were designed by Yves Saint Laurent himself. There were vinyl trench coats and scoop-neck mini dresses, which showed up later in the collection in lace in dark sage and rust instead of the purple and mauve jersey dresses from the film.
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The distinctly evening portion of the collection returns to black. The famous Le Smoking jacket is loosened again, and intercepted by tightly tailored black lace dresses. Two especially great looks were the two duplicate lace gowns (only with slightly different necklines) with pannier skirts. There is a sense of intimacy here, offered in these tiny sheer looks and in the louche suiting. It is sexy, yes, but in an inherently Parisian way. Glamorous, sure, but perhaps not by traditional definition. This skirting of norms was a sentiment that Vaccarello resonated with via the seminal writing in Gore Vidal’s novel, The City and the Pillar, a transgressive (at the time) story about queer love and gay subculture. There are moments here where that feeling carries through, via dark makeup and a show track created by SebastiAn, who intercepts classical string music with techy club tracks, offering an emotional reaction, of sorts, to the cinematic nature of Vaccarello’s collections at Saint Laurent.
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There are certain things that Saint Laurent has always been about: Paris, silhouette, austerity, and precision. For Fall/Winter 2026, Vaccarello places emphasis on all of them, reaffirming what we have always understood about his place at the maison: the language of elegance is one he speaks fluently.
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