PARIS (Reuters) – The luxury fashion house Saint Laurent juxtaposed tweed jackets with fetish style combinations when it presented its winter collection on Tuesday at Paris Fashion Week.
Sometimes, however, the dramatic decor of the parade threatened to put the clothes on stage: the models paraded in a cavernous space of absolute black, each bathed in a circle of spotlight.
Celebrities, including actress Zoe Kravitz and Hailey Baldwin, model married to artist Justin Bieber, watched the show in the Trocadéro district of Paris in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.
The women’s ready-to-wear collection, led by Saint Laurent’s creative director, Anthony Vaccarello, has remained true to its theme of a daring mix of contrasting styles.
From waist to waist, the models were modestly dressed in bow-tie blouses and conventional tweed jackets. Skinny pants shone in what appeared to be vinyl or PVC.
Some outfits leaned toward audacity; in one case, a PVC corset barely concealed by a full-length coat that was worn unbuttoned.
Other outfits have taken a safer route, but always with a nod to fetishism. A model walked on the catwalk in a loose-fitting jacket worn with culottes short enough to reveal her PVC boots to the thighs.
The fashion house was founded by Yves Saint Laurent, widely recognized for having revolutionized women’s fashion. Saint Laurent died in 2008; he was succeeded as creative director first by Hedi Slimane, then, from 2016, by Vaccarello.
The brand belongs to the luxury goods conglomerate Kering SA, which also owns the Gucci and Balenciaga labels.
Report by Antony Paone and Christian Lowe; edited by Jonathan Oatis