Over the weekend near Marrakech, the landscape of the Afgay Desert came alive for Saint Laurent’s Spring/Summer 2023 menswear show. The sun looming low, models walked around a circular runway that enclosed a small body of water, glistening like black marble under the dusky glow of the sky—the product of a collaboration with the esteemed artist and set designer, Es Devlin. An existential quote from Paul Bowles’s 1949 novel The Sheltering Sky informed the mystical set and Creative director Anthony Vaccarello’s latest explorations in dress for the coming season: We think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that’s so deeply a part of your being that you can’t even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.
Courtesy of Saint Laurent.
As the night closed in and the finale marched on, Devlin’s work culminated with a halo of light rising from the water, igniting the runway against the darkness of the desert. The installation gleaming in our vision like a beacon, we were left considering the collection—which saw Vaccarello continuing the house’s ever-evolving look at the tuxedo. Dissolving much of the line between masculine and feminine (a quality that lends to a certain romance), the looks unfolded in a palette of mostly black, interspersed with the occasional pearly white or taupe, and fine fabrications like summery silk faille, grain de poudre wool, leather, and satin.
High waists, graphic shoulders, and soft, fluid movement saw elegant garments creating elongated silhouettes, pulling influences from the womenswear oeuvre. The typical button-up shirt was seen replaced with pieces like high-necked blouses with wrap-around silk neck bows or bishop sleeves paired with low, open vs. trousers were tailored with a crease or seen in soft and supple variations. Jackets and outerwear made up some of our favorite pieces, including blazers with ties cinching the waist, double-breasted styles with sharp lapels, and slouchy dusters that enveloped the wearer with soft fabrications and folded collars. Looks were put together with chic details like classic eyewear shapes, thin belts with gold buckles, leather thong sandals, and pointy-toed boots with a slight heel.
Courtesy of Saint Laurent.
Courtesy of Saint Laurent.
