At exactly 9:00 PM on January 28, 2025, Anthony Vaccarello presented his latest menswear collection for Saint Laurent at the Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection gallery.

Loose lines in blazers, striped shirts and ties – the collection was reminiscent of a certain kind of urban Parisian “uniform”, with contrasting leather trousers and jackets, even thigh-high boots – a nod to American photographer and close friend of Patti Smith, Robert Mapplethorpe, known for his sensually charged portraits of men taken during the 1980s. Vaccarello said he imagined Mapplethorpe’s countercultural wardrobe clashing with Yves Saint Laurent’s classic Rive Gauche uniform of the same era. He called the collection “threatening, with a seductive elegance” that led to the contrasts between “lively and light, soft and firm, voluminous and tapered”.

As with the rest of the collection, they went through a masterful a line between the classicism of Parisian menswear and something strange and seductive, a mood of carnal desire that came to define Vaccarello’s vision for the French fashion house.

Photos Courtesy of Saint Laurent