Saint Laurent. Resort - 2025

 

(Images:  Saint Laurent 2024)

Hedonism and/or the epicurean maybe catch phrases when portraying the cultural aesthetics of the late 1960s, all of the 1970s and well into the 1980s, but they are indeed appropriate when one reflects the said eras in all of its sybarite glory.  And the late Yves Saint Laurent who was by his definition the epitome of 70s carnality, which has been at times, reinvigorated by Belgium designer Anthony Vaccarello in fusing the timelines of the Saint Laurent's opulence and decadence to Vaccarello's current romanticism of the First Cold War.  When it was sex, cocaine, Studio 54, and the possibility of thermonuclear annihilation. 

However, Vaccarello who would have completed nearly 9 years with the iconic fashion brand, owned by the conglomerate Kering, in April of this year, despite mainly 'hits' with his taking of the reins of Saint Laurent in April 2016, there have been some misses with his upping-the-ante of Yves Saint Laurent's ardor of over 47 years ago.  The misses, in my opinion, are Vaccarello aligning himself to closely to Yves Saint Laurent's legacy and paying too much of a homage to the late designer's impression, also Vaccarello's dabbling with a satyriasis resonation of decades past, without, at times, a respectful overture.  To which I have described in many of my reviews of Saint Laurent shows to date.

For Vaccarello's Resort 2025, he has reinvigorated the amorous energy of Yves Saint Laurent's muses, the late Lou Lou de la Falaise (d2011) and Betty Catroux, who is now in her Eighties.  Both encapsulated the erogenous vivacity of the 1970s, with an image floating around on the internet of de la Falaise and Catroux sitting close to Yves Saint Laurent at a dinner table, with de la Falaise in her Boho chic, 70s effortless style, looking relaxed, Catroux leaning forward, her blond hair draped over her shoulders.  Wearing a YSL tailored, trench coat, blazer and mini skirt.  All are smoking, drinking and laughing.  In which Vaccarello, has attempted to redefine both muses looks and styles, aware that both models assisted in defining the dichotomy of Yves Saint Laurent's repertoire, be it  his ability to fuse Eastern stylizations to European bohemianism, while maintaining his love of the late 1960s and 1970s modernism ("Mods") of the clean cut, power suit and miniskirts. 

Vaccarello's fusion of the said muses styles as a single look for a Resort collection has been clevely represented via Yves Saint Laurent's polar opposite aesthetics.  It is not as stoic, and cold as other collections have been under Vaccarello's Saint Laurent, yet the imprinted sexulaity has not be toned down at all, representing an era of liberation and openness. 

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(A.Glass 2025)