Saint Laurent. Resort 2023

(Images:  Saint Laurent 2023)

It's hard to know were the luxury fashion market is heading in 2023. Any more or less than after its dramatic slowdown in 2020 when the pandemic allowed conglomerates to be heavily underwritten, in lieu of the go-for-broke openings that occurred after vaccination rates reached the desired 'global' level.  As global deaths surged from COVID-19 so did the stock market in readying for pent up consumption, that did indeed go through the roof and so did inflation.   The COVID slowdown could have heralded something special out of the fashion industry and society in general.  But it didn't, instead it was a hyper speed spending and travel plans that was the new normal.  We are truly the instruments of our own fraught existence.   No one else to blame.

I was surprised, as much as everyone when Alessandro Michele of Gucci stepped down as creative director, and if l think back to when the global lockdowns occurred nearly three years ago, to which he wrote a heartful open letter that, in retrospective, was about how the pandemic could've made the fashion industry look at itself.  Michele's idealism and sincerity was cast aside when Kering, a publicly held entity and the holding company of Gucci pushed to keep their mega sales going in the year that followed.  And it was Michele's Spring 2022 Los Angeles show which may have been the straw that broke the camel's back, in light of the controversial Gucci movie (released at the same time) and a family that is still in dispute with its own namesake.  

   
Hence, these are the hungry ghosts that are never at rest when the living are not at peace, they will continue to haunt us.  And a legacy of suffering should be laid to rest.    Does Anthony Vaccarello have the same dilemma with Yves Saint Laurent?   That is an important question, which one should ask.  In the sense, for the many years that I have been reviewing Saint Laurent shows, I've noticed a fascination with the cultism of broken dreams and aspirations, which very much was an imprint of a turbulent and excessive period that was the 1970's and 1980's.  Yet, while Vaccarello inscribes the late Yves Saint Laurent's hedonistic lavishness, which encapsulated the pinnacle of late 70's epicureanism.  There does appear to be a preoccupation of recopying those restless apparitions of the said eras.

  
For Vaccarello's Resort 2023 collection which is in prelude to the coming Spring showing, offers a glimpse into his Saint Laurent engine.  And at this point he is showing no signs of slowing down or deviating from his homage to the Eros of forty years ago.  But, the dark and gothic overtures of previous Vaccarello looks remain as his mainstay trend of 2023.   Yes, it maybe a very dark year unfolding in front of us all, as we enter into a period, that even with a 70's esque reflection, could be the darkest in history under the potentiality of nuclear war, a persistent virus and global climate events.

   
Vaccarello, like most of his collections for Saint Laurent, has idealized the fatalism of the human condition, more so the feminine, of which, like the Fallen Caryatid and its burden, mourns both life and death - while it desires an aspiration of fame and fortune, that one can fall, if it does not transpire, into that boulevard of broken dreams.   So, the somber appeal for his soon-to-be Spring 2023 collection is evident throughout, with styles that range from full length cocktail dresses, off the shoulder short dresses and boudoir inspired lingerie.  Despite the amount of black layered over the collection, it is also intermixed with earthy palette tones.  One should also note Vaccarello's androgynous fluidity, in its representing of the masculine.

The latest array from Vaccarello is of a more serious disposition than previous seasons, with its sexual mystique toned down.  It does feel a lot more restrained and intense.  Maybe telling of the year ahead.

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(A.Glass 2023)