YSL Brings Back Classic Men’s Style for Men’s Fashion Week in Paris

Jan 17

Today was the first day of Men's Fashion Week in Paris where Saint Laurent returned with their Fall 2023 fashion show at the Bourse de Commerce - Pinault Collection after a nearly six year absence. Men’s fashion has grown exponentially over the past few years with many designers experimenting with various colors and silhouettes that were not typically seen in men's fashion in the past. For this collection, Saint Laurent has gone back to classic men’s fashion and tailoring but with a Saint Laurent twist. With the rise of diverse men’s fashion choices and aesthetics, it seems that the french fashion house has come back at a great period of time under the helm of artistic director Anthony Vaccarello.

Saint Laurent Artistic Director Anthony Vaccarello Courtesy of L’Officiel

It is clear that for this show, the garments were to be the main focus for viewers. Compared to the over the top sets that fashion shows usually have, the show’s set was simple. The set took a more modern interior design approach with one piano towards the middle of the limited audience, which was placed in a half circle in the museum. It is clear that Saint Laurent did not want the set or color to be the primary focus of the collection, but wanted the audience to focus on the garments’ shape and textures instead. Additionally, the models came out in various sleek outfits with slicked back or buzzed hair to draw focus towards the garments instead.

For this show, Vaccarello was inspired by Tadao Ando, a Japanese architect who designed the Bourse de Commerce. He wanted to showcase and put men's tailoring at the forefront with inspiration from modern architecture trends. With over 48 looks, the collection was vastly minimalistic and simple in terms of both color and design. The show featured lots of black tailoring with hints of white and other muted colors. With the minimal color, Vaccarello mixed lots of textures and fabrics on top of each other so the styling can look more distinct to the eye. The runway had a mixture of silhouettes including sleek with drapey or loose. Lots of outfits had an oversized fit to them with many models wearing big trench coats and blazers. In true winter fashion, high turtlenecks covered models' faces. Many of the turtlenecks were dress like on the models, reaching their knees and styled over pants. The collection also had limited patterns with just stripes and sequins. Vaccarello added feminine and more unisex cuts with various styles of blouses (including wrap, sheer and neck tie blouses), sweater dresses, and jumpsuits.

Lately, fashion has been adding more color and extravagance lately. With the emphasis on overconsumption and buying more today, it is getting rare to see minimalist styling and garments in fashion. The beauty of fashion is people’s opportunity to interpret and design whatever they want and create trends for themselves and others. There is nothing wrong with having a minimal color palette for a collection. For the winter and fall, I tend to turn to more dark neutral colors than in the spring or summer so I actually enjoyed that the majority of the collection was head-to-toe black. I liked how sleek the collection was and the mixture of different fabrics and textures such as leather, satin, sequins or fuzzy fabrics. It adds a new twist to men's tailoring and makes the black on black styling look more unique. I loved that they added more feminine silhouettes such as blouses on the models to add another unique twist to the classic men’s tailoring throughout the collection. It makes the collection look more modern with the rise of unisex garments and conversations regarding gender norms within the fashion world.

After waiting for nearly six years, Saint Laurent has reminded the fashion world why their menswear is so timeless and modern. They have always been experts in tailoring and suiting. With this show, the fashion industry can only hope that Saint Laurent will continue to have mens shows during Paris Fashion Week. See all of the looks here.

Here are some of the best looks from the show: