Saint Laurent’s artistic director Anthony Vaccarello looks towards using spectacle in search of Yves Saint Laurent’s original intention by hosting the Spring Summer 2023 menswear collection in Marrakesh, Morocco —the city that changed the life of the House’s founder.
Anthony Vaccarello’s initial collections for Saint Laurent wore a love for 1960s rock and roll on their sleeve. Moving from extensive subculture references and punk reinterpretations to his love for youth rebellion, the artistic director synthesised his influences into presentations of what can only be accurately described as the late 2010s definition of “effortless cool”.
From developing motorcycle jackets that took on ideas of couture to skinny jeans that carried the attitude of rockstars, Vaccarello outfitted the scene with an allure that made an impression so closely associated with Saint Laurent that it became tough to look beyond a meticulous rock and roll frame of mind. But with a series of regenerative changes illustrated in the last few seasons, Vaccarello has entered a phase of reinventions — one that has supplemented the house with glimpses of Yves Saint Laurent’s designs spun entirely with the same unfussy, nonchalant execution from collections of the 1960s to 1980s that lingers as the House’s strongest flaunt.
It was never just about the clothes too. In keeping with the rebellious attitude so closely associated with his name and that of the Saint Laurent House, Vaccarello declares the need for spectacle far from over. Just as his womenswear collections have utilised the Eiffel Tower as a sensational backdrop for numerous collections, Vaccarello provided an example of how phenomenal and instantaneous a dramatic effect can alter the stuffy outlook of menswear. In turn, the artistic director invited editors and celebrities to the desert plains of Marrakesh, Morocco for the Saint Laurent Spring Summer 2023 men’s collection.
Why Marrakesh? To maintain the aura surrounding its contemporary collections, Vaccarello devoted his efforts to the remarkable era that conjured the spirit of Yves Saint Laurent’s most riveting years as a designer. Here in Marrakesh, Yves Saint Laurent’s sensitivity to colours developed; expanding future collections with a dramatic tonal shift that allowed his designs greater range and freedom than if they were merely trying to set a mood. Fashion became an act of making statements and Vaccarello evoked just the right amount of passion to articulate Yves Saint Laurent’s original intent of hosting the show in the city.
“One morning, we awake and the sun had appeared. A Moroccan sun that probes every recess and corner. The birds were singing, the snow capped Atlas Mountains blocked the horizon, and the perfume of jasmine rose to our room. We would never forget that morning, since in a certain way, it decided our destiny,” Pierre Bergé — Yves Saint Laurent’s partner — had described their first arrival to the city in his memoir Yves Saint Laurent: A Moroccan Passion.
Mornings turn to dusk with Spring Summer 2023, as though a continuum for Yves Saint Laurent’s first encounter with the city. An epic, distressing and haunting installation of lights erected in the desert plains blurs reality and fantasy as it rises in fire against the African moonlight. Here, the dream of Yves Saint Laurent continues through the hands of Vaccarello, who understands that fashion best exists when one makes the tangible intangible.
Once you’re done with this story about Saint Laurent’s Spring Summer 2023 Menswear show in Morocco, catch up with the rest of our May 2023 issue here.
RELATED ARTICLES
The AI-fication Of Facial Treatments
