Trust Saint Laurent to make a workwear uniform we’ll actually want to wear into the office.
Because if there is anyone who can coax us out of our loungewear and into crisp, sleek and perfectly tailored blazers and boxy blouses, it’s Anthony Vaccarello.
Returning to Paris Fashion Week to present their new season Fall/Winter 2023 collection, the luxury fashion house gathered an illustrious crowd that lined the front row and set the tone for what was to come: sophisticated, confident and (most importantly) powerful designs that will be worn long after the 9 to 5 grind is over.
In front of the likes of Dua Lipa, Olivia Wilde and house muse, Zoë Kravitz, Saint Laurent paid homage to the innate femininity that comes from a woman at the top of her game.
These are the business moguls and corporate queens who don’t expect anything less than the best. On the green carpeted runway, Vaccarello unveiled their dream workwear wardrobes.
Designed for the Sylvie Grateaus or Miranda Hobbs (Sex And The City-era Miranda, of course) of the world, Vaccarello presents a new form of power dressing by looking back at Yves Saint Laurent’s own reign in the 1980s.
The collection in its entirety feels like an homage to that decade, whether it be the Joan Collins in Dynasty-esque statement shoulders or the longline silhouettes donned off-duty by the likes of Molly Ringwald or Demi Moore.
The collection started with inimitable strength: pinstripe blazers were masterfully exaggerated with statement shoulders with a perfectly oversized lapels, and when paired with knee-grazing pencil skirts slit all the way up to the inner thigh, Vaccarello’s thesis for the collection was clear: he meant business.
Rather than a cliched button-down shirt, Saint Laurent kept things loose with glossy singlet tops that had a drooping neckline that almost reached model’s navels. Elsewhere in the collection, tops were kept mesh to bring a sense of sexuality and vampishness to an otherwise business-oriented presentation.
In the same vein, 80s-approved pussy bow blouses assisted in curating this nostalgic element of the show. Saint Laurent’s fantasy world isn’t something too far removed from the past, but it isn’t a futuristic universe where spray on dresses reign supreme. It’s one that is polished, and this season, slightly prep-inspired.
The codes of a ‘uniform’ was omnipresent, whether this be through the tried and tested “jellyfish” silhouette—voluminous at the top and tapered at the bottom—or the tartan, pinstripe and Prince of Wales check.
Of course, this idea was most notable in the uniformed regimen of al the models sporting the same pair of YSL shades and oversized hoops.
Either way, Saint Laurent is making an argument for us to get our asses up and work.
