It's already October, and Paris has just celebrated an extremely romantic and dangerous night just away – it was Artistic Director Anthony Vaccarello who led SAINT LAURENT back to Paris Fashion Week, presenting a season that was almost a "perfect job".
SAINT LAURENT has long been praised by fashion fans as one of the most show-making fashion brands:
It has moved the catwalk to the rolling sand dunes of the Sahara Desert, the lagoon of Venice, or the diamond beach of Iceland, taking the audience to see the magnificent scenery of volcanoes, waterfalls to glaciers, plateau meadows and so on...
Rather than putting on a show, SAINT LAURENT is more like making a film like a visual art, from the scenes to the music to the powerful and stylish fashion works.
This time, it's finally back to the familiar Eiffel Tower, the landmark that best represents Paris. Anthony Vaccarello created SAINT LAURENT's 5th show under the tower with high-spec visual, lighting and musical creations.
At night, the Trocadero Garden on the other side of the Seine in Paris is filled with trendy spectators, the city's dots of "starlight" and the illuminated Eiffel Tower contrast, and a wall of lights made of metal tripods stands quietly, as if waiting for something.
Immediately after, a crisp footsteps began like a drum, and the sound of high heels colliding with the ground with the sonorous power of the heels heralded a group of Nocturnal Saint Laurent girls dressed in brocade, who would illuminate the night sky of Paris with the Eiffel Tower.
The music created by French musician Sebastian runs throughout the show, from the melodious violin sound, the dense rhythm of electronic music, the complex and changeable timbre of the synthesizer, and finally returning to the solemn vocals, and the light curtain wall is constantly changing and flashing with the music of the show.
Both Sebastian and Anthony Vaccarello were influenced by musician Serge Gainsbourg's work in the 1980s and the violent aesthetics of the film.
It is worth mentioning that Sebasetian, as a saint LAURENT royal show musician in recent years, has created collaborative music works for Anthony Vaccarello for many times, and the background music of the previously released micro-films "No Matter the Long Night" and "Summer of '21" released by the brand has been created by Sebasetian.
Anthony Vaccarello, who previously launched SAINT LAURENT's vinyl series called FREQUENCIES, featured 12 albums of music, described his music as "poetic violence, intensity and tension".
It is not only costumes and music that create a poetic romantic and stimulating atmosphere, but also the light curtain wall begins to pour water as the show progresses, and gradually forms a hazy and dreamy "waterfall of light".
The model walks on the wall of flying beads and jade, and the whole of Paris seems to be filled with crystal light vapor, and it is like returning to the rainy night in Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris"...
The show's lead designer, Alexandre de Betak, has once again created a stunning runway installation design after using 394 spotlights to create the mysterious "hollow corridor" under the Eiffel Tower for SAINT LAURENT.
Against such a magnificent backdrop, the SAINT LAURENT girls in Anthony Vaccarello's mind come to the waves, sexy, sharp and powerful, like a group of beautiful and murderous beauties, reminiscent of the Parisian women's group portraits of the 60s and 80s of the last century.
Since taking over as Design Director at SAINT LAURENT, Anthony Vaccarello has been passionate about digging into the brand's history and precious archives, from the quarterly collection to mr. Yves Saint Laurent's muse of inspiration, including the classic designs and behindstory of each designer.
Thus, season after season of glamorous and high-class Saint Laurent, this time, Anthony Vaccarello still leads a very subversive fashion feast full of the desire to break free and restore freedom.
As night falls, the Romantic Capital begins a modern overture, a movie-like show that brings 62 new looks, shrewd, savvy, and fashionable models emerge from the Eiffel Tower to accurately represent the image of Anthony Vaccarello's unshackled and loyal SAINT LAURENT girl.
At the heart of this season's design is bold and bright, and a sincere tribute to legendary artist and Saint Laurent-inspired muse, Paloma Picasso, expressing her complex and contradictory, independent sexy and powerful temperament under the feminist movement in France in the 1970s and 1980s, emphasizing that "women have absolute autonomy over their bodies".
Through design, he expresses his imagination of the women who wear Saint Laurent, who are independent individuals who have all the control over their bodies and thoughts, as embodied by Paloma Picasso, with a powerful aura, sexy and cool, with a distinct and elegant personality.
With the sound of the high heels hitting the ground at the beginning of the show, they came with confident and determined steps...
Anthony Vaccarello spent an entire season paying tribute to this independent, fearless, confident woman, and did not hesitate to celebrate her talent and taste in art and design.
When it comes to Palmo Picasso, probably no one can ignore her legendary surname, as the daughter of the famous modernist painting master Pablo Picasso and the French painter and writer Françoise Gilot, she grew up immersed in a strong artistic atmosphere from birth, and showed extraordinary creative talent since childhood.
Born in Paris in 1949, Paloma Picasso grew up in an artistic atmosphere. As an adult, she studied at the University of Paris and after graduation began working as a stage costume image designer for some avant-garde theatre productions in Paris.
However, this talented family is accompanied by various dramatic stories, Françoise has lived with Picasso since 1944, and the two have a pair of children, Claude and Paoloma, who also painted several paintings for Paloma in the 1950s.
Picasso's paintings Paloma to Doll and Paloma Blue were both created in 1952.
In 1953, Françoise made up his mind to leave the game life of Picasso and co-wrote a memoir with critics, "My Life with Picasso", and Picasso, feeling embarrassed, decided to part ways with Françoise.
Paoloma, who was only 14 years old at the time, never entered her father's house again, but the pressure on her surname was so heavy that she almost did not touch the brush again for several years as a child, but she also opened another door to art - jewelry creation.
Paloma's design talent was quickly recognized by the fashion, jewelry and even theatre industries, and she was highly appreciated by critics for adding a strung Rhinestone necklace to the swimsuit she designed for the Les Folies Bergère Theatre.
She also met a friend, the famous costume designer Yves Saint Laurent, and maintained a friendship that lasted for many years thereafter.
Pierre Bergé, co-founder of SAINT LAURNET, once recalled the scene when the two met.
"That day, we were invited to a party at a friend's house. After a while, Yves disappeared from my field of vision, and when I found him, I found him talking to a strange young girl. The girl wears wedge heels, a turban hat, and delicate trinkets. This girl is Paloma Picasso. ”
—— Pierre Bergé
Inspired to return to school to study professional jewelry design, she once again presented her first creations to Yves Saint Laurent, who immediately asked her to design jewelry for YSL's couture collection.
Most of her jewelry designs are displayed in bright colors and exaggerated and peculiar shapes, and she especially loves to use gold materials to match a variety of rare colored gemstones, showing a strong personality, passion and vitality, and she is known as "the golden inspiration of the jewelry design world".
Paloma's talent influenced many people, including Yves Saint Laurent. In 1971, inspired by Paloma Picasso, he created the famous "The Scandal Collection", which sparked a lot of discussion at the time, and with the rise and development of feminism, this series that highlighted the rebellious liberal attitude became a timeless classic.
Paloma likes to use gold to create jewelry, gold symbolizes the awakening of female consciousness, the artistic blood flowing in her bones and the childhood experience of living in many places make her designs full of exoticism and unrestrained and bold emotions.
Her work also involved many fields, film, theater, art, fragrance production, etc. In 1973, due to the death of her father, she temporarily put aside her jewelry design and turned to sorting out his father's posthumous works and devoted herself to the preparation of his father's museum.
In addition to jewelry design, Paloma has also worked as an actor and perfumer, and the perfume series of the same name was a huge hit when it was launched.
Paloma's freedom, nature and dynamism led Mr. Yves Saint Laurent to emerge from the red tape of haute couture and experiment with new styles.
Half a century after the release of "The Scandal Collection," Anthony Vaccarello once again paid tribute to the brave, independent, confident woman in fashion cuts, jewelry accessories, makeup and hair, and praised "she showed a charming tenacity" as an evaluation of the season's inspirational muse.
"I have always wanted to recreate the encounter between Paloma Picasso and Mr. Yves Saint Laurent, but few people can understand the importance of this encounter in their designer's creative path. As a designer, I can be sensitive to the hint that it was from that moment that Yves Saint Laurent had his own unique style. ”
——Anthony Vaccarello
In this season, it is not difficult to see that Anthony Vaccarello has a touch of radical meaning from cut to silhouette, a set of pure white high split dress as the opening, simple fabrics, sharp collars and clothing lines outline SAINT LAURENT's consistent sexiness and strength.
The necklace is embellished with a large gold bead necklace, oversized sunglasses and exaggerated jewelry earrings that match Paloma Picasso's bold and uninhibited image of wearing exaggerated jewelry.
Anthony Vaccarello gave several suits, dresses and jumpsuits that followed with the iconic shoulder pads of the 1980s, which became the season's dominant cut style.
Originally an element of menswear design, the shoulder pads are contoured to add strength and gentlemanly charm to women's wear.
He spent months revising suits and jackets that pad the shoulders of different fabrics to honor Paloma's youthful favourites, while recalling classic designs introduced by Yves Saint Laurent in the 1980s.
Featuring a number of tough silhouette coats paired with slim pants, designer Anthony Vaccarello hopes to present, but not limited to, the audience's consistent imagination of French, Parisian and Bourgeois styles through truly precise and appropriate tailoring.
The fully nude vacuum suit with a variety of pants is once Pamloma's classic outfit, and it also tells the story of SAINT LAURENT's desire to break free from the shackles and regain freedom.
At the same time, vintage print patterns are also used in a lot this season, the one-piece jumpsuit is grown by the blooming flowers, the elegance of classicism contrasts with the gorgeous Baroque style, and the smooth lines and prints of women are contrasted with each other, like exquisite artistic sculptures.
The delicate and close-fitting bodysuit is like a second layer of skin, and fabrics such as corduroy denim, flowers blooming on the front placket, folds, cutouts, knots, and straps are wrapped around the body and boldly express the body, which belongs to women's freedom and liberation.
The color expression is particularly strong this season, the collision of red and black, the bright yellow polka dot silk scarf between the necks, the hot red, pure white, mysterious purple, deep blue - Kieslowski's "Blue,White And Red Trilogy" is being staged.
Paloma Red and Klein Blue, which appeared on Paloma Piccaso's posters, have now become vehicles for combining masculinity and femininity, serenity and confidence on the runway.
The most impressive thing is the three-piece corset, the rich red is her gentle armor, such as the black of the night is her mysterious "veil", and finally gathered at the metal letter Y.S.L., narrow pants and slender high heels, highlighting the ultimate figure of the YSL girl.
This season, Anthony Vaccarello has put a lot of effort into accessories, starting with the brightly coloured leather gloves, where Anthony Vaccarello has left her cropped sleeves blank to set the stage for red-blue gloves and gorgeous gold accessories.
In addition, the flip envelope bag pinned to the waistband of the pants is Paloma Picasso's signature gesture when he takes photos with reporters, and Anthony Vaccarello pays tribute to the style of women who swept the world in the 1980s.
This casual sense of casualness is also in line with what SAINT LAURENT conveys this season: there is no strict boundary between relaxed and flashy dress, and women can fully express themselves according to their mood.
Exaggerated gold jewelry, geometric bracelets, baroque earrings, oversized spectacles, snake belts...
Anthony Vaccarello makes accessories not only decorative, but also more relevant and more tense to the silhouette of the garment, reminiscent of Paloma's eclecticism in its creations.
SAINT LAURENT'S MOST IMPRESSIVE HEELS STILL REVEAL THE DANGEROUS CHARM AND VALES OF WOMEN, LIKE THE FEMALE CHARACTERS IN ALMODOVAR'S FILMS.
Lace-ups, patent leather, PVC splicing, cold metal embellishments, they are not stepping on shoes, but the "sharp blade" that pierces the atrium.
From sharply tailored suits, spontaneous jeans, the collision of classical and Baroque styles, shoes and accessories like sculptural artworks, the Creative Director is returning to Mr. Saint Laurent's original intention of interpreting women's freedom, nature and vitality, while revealing his sharp and pioneering and sexy and delicate stylistic designs.
The female image portrayed by Saint Laurent is still deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, tenacious and uninhibited, and the girls are not cold warriors, but urban girls with full flesh, dashing confidence, rigidity and softness, just like the roses of the dark night blooming warmly in the night of Paris.
As the Eiffel Tower and illuminated curtain walls twinkle with city stars at night, Anthony Vaccarello also invited the supermodels, actors and artists who best represent the spirit of SAINT LAURENT in his mind to gather in the city of Paris.
Known as the "Prince of Denmark", Freja Beha Erichsen, as well as Anja Rubik, Julia Nobis and other supermodels all appeared on the runway, taking a sharp and confident step, showing a combination of masculinity and charming feminine charm.
Not surprisingly, as a global brand ambassador of Saint Laurent, BLACKPINK member, known as the "Wild Rose of Australia", Park Chae-young (ROSÉ), also appeared in the first row to watch the show.
Rosé wears a black slip dress with sleek black leather boots, and the iconic light hair color echoes with the black bow and the gold jewelry between the neck, sharp, cold and sweet, like a thorny rose showing a strong Girl Crush charm.
As Anthony Vaccarello said of her: "In terms of her lifestyle, her control over her outfit and the way she liberates herself from the crowd, she is Saint Laurent, she is the person who represents today's society." ”
In addition, there is Amber Valletta, a supermodel and actress who combs her handsome back and wears a gauze top and tights; catherine Deneuve, a legendary French actor and singer who has been nominated for the César Award 14 times;
Cannes queen Charlotte Gainsbourg pairs a checked suit with long leather boots, showing Jane Birkin's charm and Serge Gainsbourg's romance.
From actors Alisha Boe and Emily Alyn Lind, to singer-songwriter Charlotte Lawrence, supermodel Liya Kebede, actress Béatrice Dalle, Abel Ferrara, a renowned filmmaker known for his radical and controversial subject matter... Each one wears their own unique attitude.
Also on the runway were Mick Jagger, lead singer of the Rolling Stones, and George May Jagger, daughter of actor Jerry Hall, in a gown, boxy shorts, shirt and tie, bright red lips and iconic tooth gaps.
That night, the audience of SAINT LAURENT was star-studded, and together they witnessed that the woman wearing SAINT LAURENT was firmly in control of her destiny.
From Le Smoking smoking suits born in the late 1960s, Yves Saint Laurent justified women's right to dress freely and sexily;
To Bianca Jagger, dressed in a white Le Smoking suit, became the first woman in history to marry in a suit, creating an enduring fashion moment;
Today, Anthony Vaccarello boldly explores the rich historical archives, transforming and transforming classic elements to write a new chapter that is more in line with the contemporary context.
Saint Laurent has spanned more than half a century, from rewriting the rules of smoking clothes to new series of shows, has been shaping the image of independent, fearless, elegant and powerful women, as Yves Saint Laurent said: I let them take their own destiny.
It is worth pondering, when people start to talk about the freedom of dress, why do they dare to outline women's posture and boldly show sexy designs have become less?
Anthony Vaccarello believes that confident sexiness is not afraid of any kind of bondage. The voice of a fashion house can become a slogan for women to overcome social obstacles in history, and the show is not only about fashion itself.
There is no integration of street trends in the entire series, no "blockbusters" that can rely on sales, and no hint of de-gendered, genderless concepts, on the contrary, gender is one of the weapons of saint Laurent's core. Anthony Vaccarello's insistence on the spirit of SAINT LAURENT is invaluable and a must-have in fashion.
After a long period of self-wandering, the female knights of Saint Laurent, who belonged to the night of the city, strode high in the face of the flying water mist.
She's back again!