Anthony Vaccarello, the Italian designer born in 1982 and creative director of Saint Laurent since 2016, brings the imagery of the famous French maison founded in Paris in 1961 by Yves Saint Laurent back to Marrakech for the Spring/Summer 2023 men’s collection. A real show is staged in one of the places to which the founding designer was most attached. In fact, two of the most significant places in YSL’s history are located in what was once the old imperial city of Morocco. Marrakech is home to Villa Oasis, Yves’ private residence and the famous museum dedicated to it.
The men’s collection for the upcoming Spring Summer 2023 by Saint Laurent is set in the desert of Agafay, just outside Marrakech. Anthony Vaccarello chooses to pay homage to Yves and one of his best-loved places. Yves Saint Laurent arrived in Marrakech for the first time in 1966, and fell immediately and madly in love with it. The show staged amidst special effects, tailoring and the iconic and emblematic silhouettes – an expression of YSL’s signature codes and Vaccarello’s creative flair – seems almost like a theatrical and cinematographic moment. The role of black and white, of narrow straps and very soft trousers, the elegance of thong sandals and the maxi cardigan paired with an ochre neck scarf. The casual elegance is more than appreciated and marks this fashion show.
A parterre of celebrities is shrouded in the suggestive smoke that was the theme of the show, from models Anja Rubik, Laura Harrier and Mica Argañaraz, to Catherine Deneuve, Iann Dior, Luka Sabbat, Talia Ryder and Dominic Fike from Euphoria.
Anthony Vaccarello was inspired by The Sheltering Sky, a 1949 novel set in North Africa by Paul Bowles, and content is also quoted in the show notes.
“We get to 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.”.
SOME LOOKS FROM THE SPRING/SUMMER 2023 COLLECTION BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO FOR SAINT LAURENT
