Rock, roll and razzle-dazzle at Saint Laurent

We’ve all been there. You’re all dressed up for a big night on the town, you open the door and then –splash! – it’s been raining and you have to style it out as you wade through puddles in your micro shorts and gazillion-inch heels. Okay, so perhaps we haven’t all quite been there, but this scenario was the premise for Anthony Vaccarello’s latest iteration of the hard-edged glamour manifesto which he has been peddling at Saint Laurent since his appointment at the house in 2016.

Against the backdrop of a twinkling Eiffel Tower just after sunset, Vaccarello’s army of groupies, It girls and glamazons marched out, seemingly unfazed by the slick expanse of water which they had to negotiate their way down with gazelle-like prowess. It was a neat metaphor for the iron discipline required to carry off these designs – a dedication to tottering in heels required by few other labels in today’s trainer-dominated fashion landscape (there were none to see here) and if not gym saintliness then at least the chutzpah to don minis that barely graze the top of the thighs, although every model here was pin-thin.

With revenues up by 19 per cent to €808 million (£720 million) in the first half of 2018, Vaccarello’s vision is resonating.

He is a modern master of empowered, sexy dressing, which has new spike as a two-fingered, celebratory salute in the post #Metoo era.

Nowhere in the show was this better evidenced than in a 34-strong series of finale looks that felt like a pure cocktail of the exotic sensuality coined by Yves Saint Laurent during the latter half of the 20th century and Vaccarello’s own take on barely-there dressing; shops may have been flooded with leopard print of late, but here it was reclaimed as a central tenet of night-time razzle-dazzle in cut-out leotards and gauzy, slashed-to-thenavel dresses.

Otherwise, it was black, black and more black from spangly bodysuits to sheer chiffon maxis.

Before Vaccarello, Hedi Slimane overhauled Saint Laurent, cutting “Yves” from the brand name and bringing the rock and roll edge that was both a commercial success and divisive among fashion critics. It is his template to which Vaccarello still works.

Later this week, Slimane will present his first collection in his new role at Celine (where he’s already caused upset by removing the acute accent on the first e) but his ghost lingered in the first part of Tuesday’s show; pussy-bow blouses, star-spangled suede and frogged velvet jackets all recalled the disco flamboyance of Slimane’s I’m-with-the-band look.

If such referential webs sound complicated then really they weren’t, these are ultimately clothes for having fun in – and which some would merrily stomp through puddles for.