Everything That Glitters Is Gold at Saint Laurent
By Alexus Mosley
Photo Credit: Giovanni Giannoni/WWD
Saint Laurent struck gold.
For Anthony Vaccarello’s latest collection, the house presented a parade of gilded looks beneath enormous candlelit chandeliers, with the Eiffel Tower glowing in the background. The effect was less subtle shimmer and more full-scale opulence, with gold appearing across safari jackets, trenches, cropped tailoring, dresses and richly textured eveningwear.
The color choice was hardly accidental. Yves Saint Laurent had a long fascination with gold, once describing it as a “magical color” associated with the sun. Vaccarello leaned directly into that history, revisiting one of the founder’s favorite visual languages while filtering it through the sharp shoulders, elongated silhouettes and after-dark sensuality that have defined his own Saint Laurent.
Photo Credit: Giovanni Giannoni/WWD
What kept the collection from feeling one-note was texture. Metallic cotton, brocade, lace, lamé and gold-leaf finishes gave the color different personalities from look to look. Some pieces read almost like antique metal, while others had the slick, high-gloss shine of disco-era eveningwear. Jewel-like earrings, sculptural collars, sash belts and towering heels pushed the glamour even further.
There was also a distinctly 1980s mood running through the collection. Billowing sleeves, oversized proportions and gleaming surfaces recalled the unapologetic excess of the decade, while still feeling unmistakably Saint Laurent rather than costume. Elle compared the mood to Dynasty-era glamour, which feels especially apt given the collection’s taste for drama, shine and formidable silhouettes.
Photo Credit: Giovanni Giannoni/WWD
The presentation itself only amplified the effect. Three massive chandeliers cast warm light across the glossy runway as the Eiffel Tower sparkled nearby, turning the show into something closer to a cinematic evening scene than a conventional runway presentation. The gold-heavy sequence eventually gave way to a black finale, reversing the structure of Yves Saint Laurent’s Fall 1991 Rive Gauche collection, which famously ended in gold.
The show also arrived at a significant moment for Vaccarello, marking roughly a decade since his Saint Laurent debut. Vogue interpreted the presentation as unusually emotional and potentially valedictory, though the house had not formally framed it that way at the time of publication. Vaccarello declined interviews and instead asked audiences to experience the collection on its own terms.
Photo Credit: Giovanni Giannoni/WWD
Whatever comes next, Spring 2027 made it very clear that gold was not an accent, but the entire atmosphere.