At Saint Laurent, a Dynamic, Elastic Reflection of Masculine Sexuality

"Anthony Vaccarello shows his Saint Laurent menswear collections in a space formerly occupied by the Bourse de Commerce, the stock market of Paris. Which is fitting, in a way, because those clothes always toy with the archetypes and stereotypes of men's dress, rigid and rigorous tailoring, concealing - with varying degrees of success - a bubbling core of sexuality beneath their grain de poudre surfaces."

"There was a darkness in this Saint Laurent collection - Vaccarello acknowledged it, outwardly. "With what's happening in the world, I don't want to pretend that everything is great," he said backstage , before his Autumn/Winter 2026 line-up of outfits rinsed of the succulent colour that has become as much his signature as the house's founder. "Darkness came to my mind." Dark, but not black - rather maron glacé, bitter chocolate, midnight."

"The inspiration was Giovanni's Room, James Baldwin 's seminal 1956 novel of broiling gay desire - awakening, denouncement, denouement and ultimately rueful acceptance, all framed within the grey of Paris streets. Vaccarello read it cover to cover for the first time over Christmas: he's thinking of optioning it for a movie via Saint Laurent Productions, although maybe we can't say that. 70 years later, he was pulled into its still-powerful and poignant themes of yearning,"

The Saint Laurent menswear collection occupies the former Bourse de Commerce and reworks masculine archetypes through rigid, rigorous tailoring that conceals a bubbling core of sexuality. The presentation channels Jekyll-and-Hyde extremes of glamorous daytime couture and nocturnal eroticism, rendered in muted tones — maron glacé, bitter chocolate and midnight — rather than pure black. The collection draws on a mid-century account of broiling gay desire, yearning, denied self and tension between convention and sensuality. The runway translated that narrative into a dynamic, elastic reflection of masculine sexuality in cloth, balancing formality with visceral sensual undertones.

Read at AnOther