By The Fashion Editorial Team
For Saint Laurent's Spring/Summer 2026 Menswear collection, Anthony Vaccarello invites us into a suspended moment between Parisian elegance and the seductive shores of Fire Island. Nestled within the tranquil setting of the Bourse de Commerce's Pinault Collection gallery, Vaccarello's sensual and escapist vision was brought to vivid life by Céleste Boursier-Mougenot's enchanting installation, with drifting porcelain bowls suspended from a circular basin that emitted soft, melodious chimes as they gently collided with one another.
It's no wonder a number of high profile guests and fashion legends attended the show including: filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, actress, Leslie Bibb, actors Rami Malek, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Mark Eydelshteyn, fashion photographers Willy Vanderperre, Mathilde Pinault, Gray Sorrenti, Steven Klein, musical prodigies Lennon and Gene Gallagher, Malcom McRae, Labrinth.
This season marked a departure from the French house's traditional nocturnal presentations. Gone was the artificial glow; in its place, the stark clarity of afternoon light illuminated the collection. Vaccarello called it a 'geometry of exposure,' in which light serves to expose. Fluid, effortless, and layered with tensions, the collection shifted from past seasons in its approach.
Drawing inspiration from the queer artists who sought refuge in Fire Island in the 1970s, Vaccarello evoked a utopian escape where creative freedom and liberation bloomed. A tribute to an overlooked era in art history, the exhibition celebrated the legacy of visionaries like Larry Stanton, Patrick Angus, and Darrell Ellis, who used cryptic symbols and subtle silences to explore the complexities of human desire. At the center of the runway, the installation Clinamen became a metaphor for the collection’s quiet yet profound sensuality.
Drifting and colliding, porcelain bowls complimented the parade of looks — minimal yet stirring, expressive yet restrained. Constructed from soft silks and lightweight nylons, garments floated around the body with ease. Waistlines were gently cinched, shoulders extended, forming tension between form and fragility. Wide-shouldered shirts, delicate shorts, and languid blazers embodied a quiet sensuality. The color palette was deliberately muted, allowing looks to breathe without overly rigid statements. A soft mix of sand, dry moss, pale ochre, and pool blue helped create this mood. Continuing and refining his monochromatic styling for spring, Vaccarello explored enticing contrasts and dichotomies elsewhere in the collection. The faint exposure of boxer shorts above a tailored waistband or the ethereal transparency of silk echoed the semiotics of queer culture in the 1970s — a time when clothing became tacit communications amid restrictive settings. Airy, playful, yet unapologetically deliberate, this collection finds joy in its economy of expression, returning always to its commitment to form.
This collection was also a quiet homage to Yves Saint Laurent’s own complicated relationship with escapism. In 1974, Yves retreated to a personal refuge, emerging with renewed creative vigor. In this way, Vaccarello’s Spring/Summer 2026 Menswear collection honors this act of retreat by magnanimously carrying it forward. The past, present, and future fold into one another, informing a renewed Saint Laurent legacy. Even the minimalist architecture of Tadao Ando’s concrete rotunda reflected the collection’s themes of ritual and exposure. Its circularity amplifying the resonant chimes of Clinamen, brought the theme of the show full circle: a moment of meditation, perhaps somewhat mournful, but no less filled with presence. It's here that Vaccarello seems to ask, is there no greater luxury?
In this delicate space of light, sound, and fashion, Saint Laurent Spring/Summer 2026 Menswear became an intimate rumination on desire, beauty, and continuity. Where excessive display and shocking beauty retreat to higher ground, the Saint Laurent protagonist emerges with renewed vigor; a deepened sense of confidence, purpose, and even more desirable.