The Saint Laurent show, which opened Paris fashion week on Monday night, began with a pussy-bow blouse and ended with a ruffled dress you could fold up, pac-a-mac style, and pop in your handbag.
The label’s creative director, Anthony Vaccarello, is not known for practicality. But he can spin a story using clothes within 10 minutes. Here, under a perfectly clear night sky in front of the Eiffel Tower, an army of “mesdames” stalked a Parisian garden dressed – by the designer’s own admission – for cruising.
The fashion industry is preoccupied with the run of new designers making their debuts at big brands this autumn, including Dior and Chanel in Paris. By contrast, this is Vaccarello’s 30th collection. But “while the clothes have been fab, in terms of set and concept, the debuts haven’t been what’s delivering the spectacle”, said Elektra Kotsoni, the deputy director of Vogue Business and Runway, before the show. “Perhaps then Paris is where it’s at?”
Not many shows could build a catwalk in the shape of the famous YSL logo using white hydrangeas, and not many designers could draw Madonna, Catherine Deneuve and Carla Bruni Sarkozy, wearing a faux-fur coat (the brand banned fur in 2022) shortly after her husband, Nicolas Sarkozy, was sentenced to five years in prison.
Vaccarello likes to take old codes from Yves Saint Laurent himself and spin them into something new. Pussy-bow blouses – so named because people tied ribbons around their cats in the 30s – were popularised by Yves when he dressed women in suits in the 1960s. Later worn by Margaret Thatcher, Nancy Reagan and Kamala Harris, they came to symbolise an “invasion” of typically male-dominated workplaces, particularly in politics. Paired here with voluminous leather blousons and caps, they took on a more sexualised overtone.
Elsewhere, jewel-coloured nylon trench coats with just a pair of knickers underneath were a playful – if voyeuristic – spin on the classic YSL trench. As for the nylon gowns, which ballooned like parachutes as models walked, there was a small nod to Marie Antoinette. Practicality will only get Saint Laurent so far.
If Saint Laurent gave us eveningwear, then Louis Vuitton decided what women want are nice clothes to wear at home. Labelled an “indoor wardrobe” by the designer backstage, the biggest brand in the world shut down the entire Louvre on Tuesday morning to hold the collection in the summer apartments of Anne of Austria, Louis XIV’s mother.
“Comfort is not just about joggers,” said Louis Vuitton’s creative director, Nicolas Ghesquière, backstage. “It’s about intimacy.” On the clothes that meant nightgowns with relaxed corseting, ruffled bed jackets in buttery silk, removable collars and coffee-coloured bathrobes worn as coats. Flat shoes made of tapestry mimicked a carpet, the bright socks were fun, and shoulders were the main skin on show. Waistbands came loose or loosely tied with scarves or tassels, and there wasn’t a heel in sight.
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Louis Vuitton is a brand known for travel, and may struggle to sell the idea of indoor clothing at four-figure prices. “You can of course go outside in this,” added Ghesquière. “You have to imagine this is a trip around your apartment, though I know not every apartment is the Louvre.”
Ghesquière has been at Louis Vuitton for over a decade, but is no stranger to viral attention. This year the brand launched an absurdly expensive lipstick, a Labubu-esque bag charm, and dressed Melania Trump in a caramel leather suit at Windsor Castle. Down the road from the show venue is a Louis Vuitton cafe, which sells boiled eggs with monogrammed toast soldiers. You cannot afford Louis Vuitton, but you cannot avoid it either.
