"This is my 30th show," Anthony Vaccarello, creative director of Saint Laurent since 2016, shared when presenting the Saint Laurent Spring/Summer 2026 collection. The designer clearly understands the special context of this year's European fashion season: a series of major designers are debuting at the same time and everyone is eager to take the "spotlight".

Saint Laurent&rsquo;s Spring 2026 collection was presented at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, on a stage made of hydrangeas and green panels arranged in a giant logo. Models in shiny leather jackets took to the catwalk. The first model appeared, powerful and charismatic, transforming into a mysterious, elegant French woman.
Here, the show was structured like an opera, dense with meaning, but the message was clear: the Saint Laurent woman was not a fixed identity. She moved through the legacy of provocation, sharp intellect and aristocratic temperament, to recreate them in a new form, one that yearned for flexibility.

The show featured models in oversized leather jackets with shoulder pads, paired with white cotton poplin shirts and bow ties tied low across the chest. Vaccarello used lightweight nylon to create high-necked trench coats, see-through safari dresses and dramatic Belle &Eacute;poque dresses that could be folded and stored in zip-up bags like windbreakers, he said. Vaccarello said he was recently haunted by an interview with Fran&ccedil;oise Giroud, the former French Minister of Culture in the 1970s, who described the YSL woman as &ldquo;loose by day, regal by night.&rdquo; Inspired by that, the designer reimagined the image of 1980s &ldquo;leather daddies&rdquo; wandering the Tuileries after dark, envisioning skin-tight pencil skirts, chunky biker jackets and powerfully puffed-sleeved blousons.
Vaccarello also drew inspiration from the series of dresses Yves Saint Laurent designed for Nan Kempner, H&eacute;l&egrave;ne Rochas, and Jane Birkin at the 1971 Proust Ball hosted by Marie-H&eacute;l&egrave;ne de Rothschild. He also mentioned Queen Margo, one of his favourite films with Isabelle Adjani, set in 16th-century France. Vaccarello said this was the first time he had tapped into the historical side of Saint Laurent&rsquo;s archive, a source of inspiration he believes is endless.
&ldquo;I still want to tell more stories,&rdquo; the designer shared. &ldquo;This is a legacy with so much to tell.&rdquo;

Saint Laurent SS26: Charisma & Authority, the French Way

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