Nuance Is the New Loud at Saint Laurent S/S26

Paris Fashion Week opened under the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, and Saint Laurent delivered an 80s-inspired movie trailer that’s audacious and glamorous. Anthony Vaccarello’s Spring/Summer 2026 show staged a retro reboot, reframed for a generation fluent in irony and exaggeration. In a season obsessed with personalization and self-expression, the creative director showed that style speaks, persuades, and occasionally smirks, depending on how you wear it.

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Vaccarello’s mood was retro, Victorian, techno—sometimes all at once. Shoulder pads are still predominant, which is a good thing for people who had second thoughts the first time. Gargantuan bows co-mingled with leather bomber jackets and pencil skirts, while jewellery hung like trophies from necks, wrists, and ears, complementing the maximalist gospel of the decade.

The Saint Laurent woman has always been a character, but this season, she walked straight off a story outlined by Emerald Fennell. Charli XCX crashes a black-tie gala attended by Zoë Kravitz, with a soundtrack only the deeply cultured would know exists, and you’ll start to understand the oscillation between modernity and pretension Vaccarello so adroitly choreographed. She’s flirty and fearless. Her power: glamour, and attitude.

The politics of style hovered, even if subtly. Vaccarello’s show notes hinted at the polarized mood saturating global discourse. “At a time when dialogue is fading, style becomes a form of discourse — not one that imposes but one that connects and adds nuance.” In other words, fashion is the language we should learn that can have the ability to spread a message or two. Suddenly, Saint Laurent wrote a thesis with leather, satin, and silk.

Gowns spilled across the runway in amber, saffron, and chartreuse, like stolen fragments of a sunset. Trench coats from the Rive Gauche archives glistened and clung, at once protective and provocative, while frills and ruffles staged a mutiny against the tyranny of stiff tailoring. 

Accessories are oversized and gleaming, mocking reservation with sway. They turned the revival into a lesson in literacy: personal style could provoke, perform, and persuade, all while daring the world to look a little closer—and maybe, to take notes.

If Saint Laurent S/S26 has a takeaway, it is this: the retro comeback doesn’t live in nostalgia, but in the audacity of a delusion bigger than ambition itself. Belief is mandatory. Confidence, like shoulder pads, is never too large to ignore.

Photos: SAINT LAURENT