Spotted at the Saint Laurent show: the heart necklace worn on the back

The heart necklace worn on the back at the Saint Laurent show

“But why can’t women do what they want with their bodies? Do they have to be covered from head to toe to be treated well?”, Anthony Vaccarello, artistic director of Saint Laurent, told Numéro in 2018. This season, the Parisian house once again put the spotlight on the female figure with a sultry play on transparency.

The Fall/Winter 2024-2025 silhouettes, which include a series of ethereal dresses, both evoke the elegance of an antique wet cloth and an untouchable and fearsome sensuality – the house’s signature. Anthony Vaccarello is a maestro. The fabrics used in his show do not cover, but rather enhance and add a touch of glamour to the female body.

Besides, this lightness can perhaps be explained by the accessorization of the looks, from the casual faux-fur stoles to the jewels made of glass and the Paloma Picasso-inspired turbans.

But the centerpiece of this Saint Laurent show is to be found in the final look: an asymmetrical heart-shaped necklace, adorned with red stones, crystal and pearls. Worn back to front, the necklace can only be seen from the back. At Saint Laurent, the neckline is no longer the only place to receive special treatment…

Saint Laurent’s love story with hearts

“Without elegance of the heart, there is no elegance”, Yves Saint Laurent used to say. As early as 1962, year of the new fashion house’s debut collection, the theme of love became a genuine feature that was then translated into jewelry with a brooch in the shape of an asymmetrical heart paved with glowing gems, like a talisman. “It was a very large piece of jewelry, twelve centimeters high and eight centimeters wide, designed at the time by a jeweler named Roger Scemama,” Pierre Bergé explained to Numéro in 2016.

Whether it appears as a brooch or adorned on a carmine-red fur, as in Hedi Slimane’s Fall/Winter 2016-2017 collection, the heart plays a major role in the house’s classics.

In 1990, Yves Saint Laurent even drew a sketch of this heart necklace for Vogue Magazine, that Anthony Vaccarello reinterpreted this season. “What could be more beautiful for a woman than to tie passion around her neck in the form of a heart?” The great fashion designer’s motto must have surely resonated in the mind of the talented artistic director.

Traduction Emma Naroumbo Armaing