For the Fall/Winter Men’s 2024 Anthony Vaccarello relies on various elements introduced in previous seasons, while changing tone and content. The garments are roomy, soft, detached from the body, often in lightweight and transparent fabrics, sometimes layered. The first model to open the show looks like a doppelgänger of Yves himself: square glasses, short cut, and a soft blazer. The classic double-breasted suit associated with 1980s power dressing influences all the initial looks; as the show progresses, the formal silhouettes dissolve, and the sartorial jackets made of crepe georgette lined with satin – without reinforcements – are connected to the latest women’s collection of the French Maison. A palette of colors predominantly dark and shadowy lightens towards a range of dusty tones at the end: pale nudes, greens and violets, among other shades. Indirectly, the shift reflects the personal sartorial evolution of Yves Saint Laurent, first serious and then boldly elegant with a rare sensitivity to color. Throughout, the tailoring is fluid, with an intentional momentum: the illusion of fabric becoming liquid, or flowing through the collection. Suddenly, a black leather hat is connected to a structured rubber coat thanks to the reinterpretation of a 1960s archival reference, or even more precisely, of 1963, now paired with a pair of wide sartorial trousers. Languid black trenches with double-breasted fastening, raglan sleeves, and belt cover the shoulders of burgundy blouses, in harmony with the austere concrete rotunda of a Bourse de Commerce carpeted in black and adorned with a monumental arch of dark flowers.
“I wanted this collection to be more formal, more classic, more masculine. I’ve never done the flou before for the men’s, but I liked the idea of having this traditional suiting in these fluid, almost feminine, fabrics, like the georgette and the satin”.
Various color notes chosen for this men’s collection, such as mauve, beige, chocolate, and wild rose, echo the hues selected for the women’s collection. It’s not a coincidence. In contrast, on gray flannel or light striped linens, Vaccarello accentuated the connection between women’s and men’s suits through colors. The shoulders are high and square, as are the suits, and the shirts underneath are cut so that the collars are particularly visible above the neck, paired with smooth ties in black, khaki, or bordeaux. The black rubber coats and the enveloping wool coats compete in volume. The sunglasses and reading glasses take inspiration from the seventies. References to Patrick Bateman from American Psycho and his stylistic influence in the collection are clear: the neat and elegant appearance recalls scenes from the film where Bale obsessively prepares for a new series of successes, an ode to the resurgence of formal wear in men’s fashion incorporated into the Windsor knot in the tie and shiny loafers. The earthy-colored turbans – introduced by Yves Saint Laurent in European fashion during the Saharienne collection of 1967, inspired by the costumes of North Africa – this time seem to evoke silk stockings. The sartorial exploration of traditional elements of men’s clothing veers towards a timeless yet contemporary relaxed, more delicate, and less aggressive style. Yet it still maintains the thrill of something darker.
