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Saint Laurent: A powerful Spring/Summer 2026 show facing the Eiffel Tower
On Monday 29th of September 2025, the Spring/Summer 2026 Fashion Week kicked off with its first major event – the Saint Laurent show in front of the Eiffel Tower. Throwback to Belgian designer Anthony Vaccarello’s striking runway show.
© Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images
Saint Laurent, Paris and the Eiffel Tower
There’s no doubt about it. Anthony Vaccarello loves blurring the lines of femininity. The protagonists he brings to life are never the ones you expect. Their style and presence shift from look to look, as seen in the latest Saint Laurent Spring/Summer 2026 collection.
This complexity sometimes echoes Luis Buñuel’s film Belle de Jour (1967). What could be more unexpected than a bourgeois woman, who becomes a prostitute to avoid boredom, portrayed by Yves Saint Laurent’s muse Catherine Deneuve? But Vaccarello also draws on a broader myth, that of the Parisienne… An fantasy, elusive femme fatale who never has to try too hard to charm.
On September 29th, 2025, Saint Laurent returned to the legendary setting of the Trocadéro Fountain, using the glittering Eiffel Tower as its backdrop, for one of the season’s most spectacular shows. Numéro takes you inside this first major event of the Spring/Summer 2026 Fashion Week in Paris.
A garden of YSL hydrangeas
Formed by the interlacing initials of its founder, the YSL logo is one of the most iconic in fashion history. Designed in 1961 by the Ukrainian-born painter Cassandre, this legendary logo has been tied to the house ever since its creation. Although it was briefly set aside by Hedi Slimane – artistic director from 2012 to 2016 – the logo was brought back into the spotlight by Anthony Vaccarello. This return has firmly reinstated the YSL monogram as a timeless emblem.
For the Spring/Summer 2026 show, the logo took on a romantic twist, reimagined as a floral backdrop made of white hydrangeas. One can’t help but recall Laetitia Casta in her bikini made of fresh roses for the Spring/Summer 1999 haute couture show. While the French actress did not appear on the runway last Monday, many other celebrities entered this Parisian garden of delights. Among them were Madonna and her daughter Lourdes Leone, Charli XCX, Renée Zellweger and Charlotte Rampling. The Saint Laurent muses Kate Moss, Hailey Bieber and Zoë Kravitz were also present.
A polymorphous Spring/Summer 2026 collection
With each Saint Laurent collection, Anthony Vaccarello seems to pursue a vision of the absolute. The Belgian designer often pushes the limits of boldness and discipline, all the while working with a remarkably limited number of silhouettes. Yet, he never falls into monotony or repetition, which is one of the key strengths of his work. For his Spring/Summer 2026 show, he explored three distinct, yet complementary silhouettes.
Mapplethorpe-inspired, brazen leather
After being the inspiration for the Fall/Winter 2025 menswear collection, Robert Mapplethorpe is once again the reference of this new women’s collection. Back in 1983, the provocative American photographer shot a campaign for the house. That era permeates this new show. It opens with women clad in leather armours, their silhouettes marked by broad 1980s-style shoulders. Subtle details hint at what may be BDSM influences. At times, jackets give way to structured white blouses and their lavallière neckties remind us of ballroom gown bows. The fierce attitude and commanding stride appear as a striking contrast with the poetic setting.
The comeback of the Rive Gauche silhouette
Then comes the trench coats and parachute-fabric dresses in vivid colours, evoking the spirit of the Rive Gauche designs. Launched by Yves Saint Laurent in 1966, this line played a pivotal role in democratizing ready-to-wear fashion. Mass-produced and simplified, the garments sparked a quiet revolution, one that contributed to the emancipation of women at the time. Sixty years later, the questionable return of the “tradwife” ideal on social media stands as fertile ground for conservative ideologies we thought long gone. In this stressful context, these light, colourful, carefree, yet mysterious silhouettes stir up winds of freedom onto the collection.
Dramatic gowns for a rebellious look
Final act of the Saint Laurent Spring/Summer 2026 show, the voluminous princess gowns and their technical fabrics swept away any hint of old-fashioned excess. Although Anthony Vaccarello cites the Duchesse de Guermantes, a character created by Marcel Proust, or Sargent’s infamous Madame X (1883–1884), another figure comes to mind – Marie Antoinette. Currently celebrated in an exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, the style of the last French queen conjures up the quintessential dramatic heroine. Indeed, these gowns wouldn’t be out of place in Sofia Coppola’s anachronistic 2006 film. To offset their almost regal opulence, on opposite poles from Saint Laurent’s usual codes, the models stepped onto the runway at a rapid pace. Behind them, their dress trains floated with each one of their powerful step.
