5 Things to Know About Saint Laurent’s Spring 2023 Men’s Show in the Desert

From reworked Le Smoking jackets to a futuristic finale, see the highlights of Saint Laurent’s desert fashion show

For Saint Laurent’s spring/summer 2023 menswear show, creative director Anthony Vaccarello returned to a destination that is as significant to the French fashion brand as Paris: Morocco, where founder Yves Saint Laurent lived and fell in love. The spectacle that was unveiled included a futuristic light installation, desert dunes, and Vaccarello’s finest men’s collection yet. Here are five things you need to know.

1. The fashion show was set in a desert

Just as Valentino had ditched Paris for its recent haute couture fashion show in Rome, Saint Laurent held its latest presentation in the storied city of Marrakech. Or, more accurately, the Agafay desert, which sits south of the storied Red City. The dramatic setting was enhanced by natural elements: the sunset illuminated the desert’s rolling stone plains with an orange glow that contrasted the all-noir collection, while a wind animated the collection’s diaphanous pieces as models sauntered through the desert.

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2. The Le Smoking jacket was reimagined—for men

Above Photo: Saint Laurent

The story of Le Smoking—the tuxedo that Saint Laurent’s founder fashioned for women in the ’60s—is one of the most fabled parts of fashion lore. This season, Vaccarello returns the jacket to the menswear wardrobe, but with a feminine fluidity that he achieved with fabulous fabrics like silk chiffon, satin and velvet. Some styles were also cut from grain de poudre, a traditional menswear fabric that was radically used in the original Le Smoking. With similar silhouettes and textures running through this collection as in Saint Laurent’s fall/winter 2022 collection for women, Vaccarello achieved what the brand’s founder had with his iconic jacket: a blurring of the boundaries between gendered dressing.

3. The collection referenced Vaccarello’s style in his art school days

Above Photo: Saint Laurent

Yves Saint Laurent was not the only man on the moodboard this season: Vaccarello revisited the clothes that he wore as an art school student at La Cambre 20 years ago. The effect was not so much nostalgia as it was comfort: models looked cosy in ensembles that balanced sharp tailoring with lived-in softness. A sense of ease was also expressed in pieces seemingly inspired by the show’s locale, like robes, caftans, and wide-leg trousers that billowed in the wind.

4. Accessories were minimal—but impactful

Above Photo: Saint Laurent

Vaccarello had made it a point to mostly colour his collection in noir, all the better to bring the silhouettes into sharp focus. It’s not surprising then, that there wasn’t much to distract the eye from the clothes themselves. Accessories were carefully considered: there were black-out sunglasses, sparkling brooches pinned onto lapels, scarves that nodded to the ’70s, and sandals that lent an earthiness to the elegant outfits.

5. The show closed with a futuristic finale

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The end of the impressive presentation was marked by a giant circle of light that emerged from the dust and the sand while models filed past. The installation was the work of London artist and set designer Es Devlin, whom Vaccarello had tapped to illustrate one of his inspirations: Paul Bowles’ The Sheltering Sky, an existentialist novel set in the North African desert.

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5 Things to Know About Saint Laurent’s Spring 2023 Men’s Show in Morocco

1. The fashion show was set in a desert

2. The Le Smoking jacket was reimagined—for men

3. The collection referenced Vaccarello’s style in his art school days

4. Accessories were minimal—but impactful

5. The show closed with a futuristic finale