How Sheer Is Too Sheer? Saint Laurent Bares All at Paris Fashion Week
These days, sheer dresses are a dime a dozen, with everyone from Dua Lipa to Florence Pugh and Kendall Jenner daring to show off a little—or a lot of—skin. So, how does one base an entire collection on sheer dresses, and not just any sheer dresses, but dresses made out of the same material as tights? Anthony Vaccarello of Saint Laurent has an idea. After fixating on singular silhouettes and moods for the last few seasons, particularly in regard to the flight suits in his last collection that strayed away from cotton twills, he turned his attention inward to quite literally bare all.
As always, Saint Laurent’s show was set against the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower and impossibly chic, with deep-sunk black leather couches surrounding a gargantuan circular room, draped in green velvet curtains with a wet concrete floor. The first look immediately set the tone of the assortment, with a waistband on a pair of tights acting as both a bandeau top and a skirt hemline at once, accessorized with lucite bangles and earrings, a marabou jacket as a clutch clutch, and a hosiery cap (another emerging trend this fashion week, bad hair days be damned). The silhouette rarely veered from the formula: a top enveloped in a wrapped tank or blouse and pencil skirt combo. The colors ranged from tan, to hunter green (the color of the season), to iris, to midnight blue, to maroon, to heather grey, to nude, light nude, and deep nude (did I say nude?), all done in sheer to leave nothing to the imagination.
Where the sheers weren’t, there were a few exceptional coats and jackets: one rubber-looking one with curved arms that will surely please tried-and-rue Saint Laurent fans. The collection prompts questions of what will actually sell, and beside accessories and jackets, there wasn’t much to speak of. Bags haven’t appeared on the Saint Laurent runway for several seasons now, a styling choice that has paid off, not commercially but fashion-wise, for it demands a strict version of glamour where the wearer simply doesn’t have anything to carry. The collection revealed just how skinny these models are, and also failed to ask how those looks would translate onto someone without visible hip bones. However, one must appreciate Vaccarello’s specificity from an aesthetic point of view, a completely uncompromising vision of glamour, one that might not be entirely modern, but is chic and Parisian as hell, and knows what it is, whereas many other shows and designers do not.
Saint Laurent Fall/Winter 2024
Kevin LeBlanc is the Fashion Associate at ELLE Magazine. He covers fashion news, trends, and anything to do with Robyn Rihanna Fenty.