PARIS Fashion Week, SS17 – a season that will go down in fashion history as expectation rises in anticipation of how three of the fashion capital’s most high-profile houses will measure up under new creative direction. Dior has their first grande dame, Maria Grazia Chiuri, Lanvin, Bouchra Jarrar, their first darling since Jeanne herself joined the Syndicat de la Couture in 1909, and Saint Laurent, Anthony Vaccarello. Showing his debut collection for the house of Saint Laurent the newly appointed creative director was a rebel with a cause greater cause than that of his predecessor, Hedi Slimane.
When Hedi joined back in 2012, YSL desperately needed the youth-quaking creative pulse he nonchalantly drummed up through daring designs initially rebuked for being too grunge. That old black magic called grunge saw the brand report a revenue of 973.6 million Euros against 707.3m Euros the previous year by the time Hedi was rumoured to be bowing out last year. Now, on the heels of Hedi’s departure, comes Vaccarello’s turn to get put through his paces at an exhausting rate in the hope of making his mark, and a pretty penny for Kering in the long run.
In mourning of the glitter and grease Saint Laurent that was under Slimane’s lead Vaccarello started SS17 all in black. The grease was soon replaced by gloss when Vacarello decided to vamp up the vagabond vixen that Slimane invited to the party. Accordingly an air of intensified elegance entered the disused armoury that has not been a thing at Yves Saint Laurent since fizzling out following Tom Ford’s exit in 2004.
Vaccarello has evidently been fully versed at Versus Versace in creating garments with a freewheeling sex appeal that comes from the confidence in exaggerating the body’s natural assets, not nullifying them. Lashings of glam fabrics licked those bodies in dresses wielding a swagger that would have Lou Lou de Falaise living, again.
A handful of jackets teased at mock modesty, ranging from tantalisingly classic tuxedos, then adapted into more militant and biker variations. Free from the shackles of more than one layer, shoulders soared in a show of force that’s gone un-shown since Claude Montana ruled the runways with no sartorial scruples.
References to days past and Vaccarello’s forefathers aside, Saint Laurent’s new man has made a decidedly decent first go at finding his place at a house on the rise. It could have given more to challenge spectators, more change, a new identity even; yet that would have only felt forced.
It’s admirable the way Vaccarello has followed his gut instinct and been allowed to do so. And it has resulted in an accordingly gutsy collection that need not rekindle any ideas of the past, instead insisting that this is the modern way of looking good. And that’s final, until next season.
by Livia Feltham
Images courtesy of Saint Laurent