Tuesday, May 4, 2021

Saint Laurent’s Menswear-Inspired Winter 2021 Show

For his Winter 2021 Saint Laurent film, Anthony Vaccarello chose an arctic setting to show his louche wardrobe for the post-lockdown climate. Here, British Vogue’s fashion critic Anders Christian Madsen breaks down five things to know about the show.


The virtual show took place in an arctic setting

Titled Where the Silver Wind Blows, the virtual Saint Laurent show was superimposed within the tundra of the arctic wilderness, and scored with music by Max Richter. It followed last season’s similar idea – where models walked atop the ridge of a desert dune – seizing the limitations created by the pandemic to imagine a fashion show in an impossible setting.


The silhouette borrowed from the ’60s

Anthony Vaccarello drew on Yves Saint Laurent’s ’60s archives for his post-lockdown proposal, infusing his go-to skinny and skimpy silhouette with the classic fabrics of menswear in a heritage expression, which evolved the bourgeois codes the designer has been reviving at Saint Laurent: boucle and tweed jackets, patterned vests, and knitted check cardigans paired with long shorts and jeans.


The colours were opulent

Evoking retro glam, Vaccarello injected his winter wools and knits with opulent colours and metallics, hinting at a post-lockdown exuberance predicted by many designers this season. His louche nightclub sensibility reached a zenith in faux fur-trimmed knitted swimming costumes that fused the extremes of two worlds – perhaps a nod to the transitional time in which we find ourselves.


It was all about legs

Things got extra-short in the hemline department, continuing the season’s affinity for legs on display. Next to a golden boucle romper, Vaccarello paired his tiny hot pants and mini-mini-skirts with thigh-high ’80s leather boots. On the way, he saluted the midriff, too, in little closed bolero numbers with faux fur cuffs.


It reflected the ambiguity of the post-lockdown wardrobe

The eveningwear tackled a covered-up silhouette in a plumed sack dress and a boule cape, and the very opposite: a transparent black negligee dress with a bra element fashioned solely from the underwire and a chiffon flower. It was a bold look for a return to the real world, but one that might evoke the dressed-down comfort of those days in lockdown.

No comments:

Post a Comment