Anthony Vaccarello places gold at the heart of Saint Laurent’s Spring-Summer 2027 collection, creating a radiant runway where the house’s signature sensuality, precise tailoring and unmistakable glamour take on an entirely new intensity.
Since assuming the creative director role at Saint Laurent in 2016, Vaccarello has developed an aesthetic that is immediately identifiable. Rather than reinventing the brand from season to season, he has spent nearly a decade refining a carefully defined vision. Sharp tailoring, elongated proportions, sheer materials, daring cuts and sophisticated eveningwear have formed the foundation of his approach.
For the new season, those familiar codes remain—but they are illuminated by a single, commanding idea.
Gold takes over.
Metallic fabrics dominate the collection, catching the light as the models move and turning the runway into a constantly shifting display of reflections and shimmer. Even the most recognizable Saint Laurent silhouettes acquire a different character when rendered in luminous gold. The overall impression is undeniably extravagant, yet there is a precision and restraint beneath the spectacle.
The metallic treatment extends across the collection with remarkable consistency. Tailored trench coats, slim pencil skirts, safari-style jackets, fitted trousers and structured separates are transformed by gleaming surfaces. Cocktail dresses and elaborate evening pieces push the concept further, introducing intricate textures and finishes that intensify the collection’s sense of luminosity.
But Vaccarello never allows the concept to overpower the clothing.
Instead, gold becomes a way of redefining pieces that are already deeply associated with Saint Laurent. The material provides the drama without requiring excessive embellishment. A trench acquires an almost architectural quality, a narrow skirt resembles polished exotic leather and a structured jacket can look more like a precious object than conventional clothing.
The silhouettes remain familiar. Their visual impact does not.
The limited use of other colors makes the metallic palette even more striking. Black velvet and organza appear throughout the collection as moments of contrast, introducing darkness and transparency into the predominantly golden lineup. Long mousseline scarves in khaki, mustard and earthy reddish shades add softer accents, while their movement creates an appealing contrast with the polished surfaces of the garments.
These interruptions give the collection rhythm and keep the central gold theme from becoming monotonous.
The color also has an important place within Saint Laurent’s history. Yves Saint Laurent repeatedly incorporated gold into his designs, using it for embroidery, buttons, brocade, lamé and elaborate evening creations. His fascination with the shade reflected a broader interest in glamour, fantasy and the ability of clothing to transform the wearer.
Vaccarello’s decision to make gold the defining element of Spring-Summer 2027 therefore feels particularly significant.
Rather than simply revisiting archival pieces, he draws on one of the house’s most enduring visual obsessions and interprets it through his own contemporary lens. The collection creates a clear connection between the founder’s fascination with luxury and Vaccarello’s modern approach to sensual dressing.
This relationship with Saint Laurent’s history has been fundamental to Vaccarello’s tenure.
Throughout the past decade, he has repeatedly returned to the house’s most recognizable signatures. The tuxedo, pencil skirt, safari jacket, sheer dress and dramatic gown have all been reinterpreted in different seasons. Their fabrics and proportions evolve, but their essential character remains intact.
For Vaccarello, familiarity is not necessarily a limitation. It can be a creative foundation.
His Saint Laurent has demonstrated that a designer does not always need to introduce an entirely new visual language to make an impact. By consistently refining a strong point of view, he has created a woman whose identity has become increasingly distinct.
She is self-assured, glamorous and unapologetically sensual. She can wear a sharply constructed tuxedo one moment and an almost completely sheer dress the next, yet both choices communicate the same sense of power. In Vaccarello’s universe, revealing clothing is never presented as vulnerability. It becomes an expression of confidence and control.
A succession of influential women has helped define this image over the years. Kate Moss, Anja Rubik, Anok Yai and Binx have embodied the elongated silhouettes and sophisticated attitude of his runway, while Hailey Bieber and Zoë Kravitz have helped bring Saint Laurent’s distinctive combination of French elegance and provocative glamour to audiences around the world.
Their connection to the house adds another layer to the Spring-Summer 2027 presentation, particularly amid continued speculation about Vaccarello’s future. If the collection does ultimately mark the end of his tenure, the mood is not one of mourning. Instead, it feels like an affirmation of what he has achieved.
That achievement becomes especially apparent in the eveningwear.
Long silhouettes skim the body, while lace, organza and strategically positioned openings create an interplay between concealment and exposure. Velvet introduces depth and richness, while metallic gowns reflect the runway lighting with every movement. These are clothes designed for dramatic entrances, but they retain the sophisticated construction associated with the house.
The balance between sensuality and elegance has always been one of Vaccarello’s strongest qualities.
Long before Saint Laurent, the designer established a reputation for clothing that celebrated the body through dramatic proportions, revealing cuts and highly confident silhouettes. His arrival at Saint Laurent allowed that language to expand within the context of one of fashion’s most iconic names.
Nearly ten years later, the connection between designer and house feels fully established.
Vaccarello’s aesthetic has become an important part of Saint Laurent’s contemporary identity. His work demonstrates the impact of consistency: instead of abandoning recognizable ideas, he has repeatedly returned to them, adjusting and sharpening them until they feel unmistakably his.
Spring-Summer 2027 may be the clearest example yet.
Whatever the future holds, the collection feels like a concentrated statement of Vaccarello’s approach. He does not attempt to reinvent Saint Laurent from the ground up. He takes the codes he knows best and amplifies them, giving them greater intensity through color, texture and light.
Gold provides the perfect vehicle.
It speaks to the luxury and glamour embedded in Saint Laurent’s heritage while reflecting Vaccarello’s own fascination with sensuality, confidence and the female silhouette. It is extravagant but carefully edited, striking without becoming uncontrolled.
The collection ultimately feels more like a culmination than a farewell.
Under the lights of Paris, the Saint Laurent woman appears in luminous metallics, precise tailoring and provocative eveningwear, carrying the assured attitude that has characterized Vaccarello’s era. If this is indeed the final chapter of his Saint Laurent story, it ends with a powerful image: a woman dressed in gold, completely confident in her presence, and a house shining at full intensity.