Vaccarello’s Spring 2026 line drew on the house founder’s past, all staged beside a drifting pool of porcelain bowls.
Guests of Saint Laurent‘s Men’s Spring 2026 show stepped into the rotunda of the Bourse de Commerce, the Pinault family’s restored art landmark. Inside, French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot’s shallow pool sent white porcelain bowls gliding across aqua water, their gentle collisions punctuating the hush before the first look emerged.
Anthony Vaccarello opened with roomy shorts, a boxy trench and a blazer cut with extended shoulders—a clear echo of the 1950s photograph of Yves Saint Laurent in Oran. The reference set the tone: familiar menswear frameworks nudcoged forward by small changes in proportion and intent. A sandy palette anchored the story while shades of yellow and blue hinted at longing beneath restraint.
That tension was central. The show notes spoke of a moment “when beauty served as a shield against emptiness,” a line that nodded to Saint Laurent’s own battles with loneliness and to the guarded codes many gay men of his generation knew well. Ties sat low, tucked beneath the second shirt button; dark sunglasses hid the eyes. Each styling choice suggested something private kept close.
Boursier-Mougenot’s installation mirrored the mood. As bowls drifted, touched and slid away, models crossed paths yet remained worlds apart, their stillness broken only by the soft ping of ceramic on ceramic. Vaccarello, often applauded for control and polish, leaned into that stillness rather than spectacle.
There were few surprises—just clothes the client already wants. In Paris, that certainty reads as confidence: a house sure of its power, content to speak softly and let the silhouettes carry weight. For anyone who has ever wanted more yet learned to guard the heart, Spring 2026 offered a quiet affirmation in cloth.
