Saint Laurent isn’t budging from their leather clad direction, and we’re okay with it

Paris Fashion Week started just as I like it, with a jolt that gets the engines running. Creative director Anthony Vaccarello has been on something of a warpath, determined to keep the YSL man and woman cool, collected, and just a little unhinged. Hot on the heels of the brilliant SS25 menswear collection featuring leather thigh-high boots that made Alexander Skarsgård’s stylist scramble, this womenswear season saw him working in parallel, adding motorcycle jackets and power shoulders into his latest arsenal.

Everything about this collection screamed 80s. From the giant novelty earrings to the oversized bows and pencil skirts. No one wants office siren, everyone wants Dolly Parton and Jane Fonda’s power dressing in 9 to 5. As the fashion cycle accelerates, it seems inevitable that the 80s will be the next phase in the coming trend cycles. The genius in these cyclical revivals, though, isn’t how the decades are recreated, but rather how they are reinterpreted to suit our evolved tastes.

Vaccarello’s 80s is hot. It’s baroque with its big bellowing sleeves and ruffles on a stream of silk dresses that glide down the runway. It’s bigger and famously better. Think baroque flourishes with the billowing sleeves, silk ruffles trailing down fluid gowns, and sunglasses that hide your face without overwhelming it. It is drama tempered with wearability —a balance that has become a Saint Laurent calling card and a formula that keeps the house at the centre of Paris’s conversation.