Risqué business dominated the Paris catwalk last night as Saint Laurent staged a showcase which combined the sensible with the sensual to create power dressing at its most perverse.
In a collection which offered infallible proof that sex still sells - just as a well cut suit jacket does – Anthony Vaccarello presented all the essentials for any modern workwear wardrobe, from pussy bow blouses to sharp pencil skirts and immaculately tailored coats, while simultaneously satisfying a serious fetish for latex.
“I wanted to find the balance between control and abandonment, the tension between discipline and pleasure that defines the modernity of Saint Laurent,” explained the designer. Accordingly, every one of the 66 looks to take to the catwalk yesterday incorporated a wipe-clean component, from glistening skin-tight trousers to seriously kinky boots.
As for the more demure side of Saint Laurent’s new season muse, Vaccarello looked back to the “well-behaved and overly bourgeoise elegance” of the YSL house during the Nineties. It was here that houndstooth blazers, waterfall ruffle dresses and fluid silk shirts found their footing, along with panther prints, polka dots and a colour pop palette.
Vaccarello’s vision worked best when the scales were stopped from tipping too far in one direction. Think more vamp than vulgar; less conventional than corporate. A sheer georgette blouse and tailored grey city shorts would have appeared mundane if paired with a plain nude court shoe, but not with Saint Laurent’s thigh-high PVC boots. Just a hint of a latex corset was also just enough to turn a heavy tweed overcoat from traditional to titillating.
Of course, for Paris’s premier outfitter to the rock ’n’ roll elite - see the likes of Lenny and Zoe Kravitz sat front row – it’s perhaps only fitting that vinyl is poised to become next season’s greatest hit.
