Dressing the Modern Court
Review of Saint Laurent Spring 2026 Fashion Show
By Mackenzie Richard Zuckerman
THE COLLECTION
THE VIBE
Archetypal Power & Disciplined Grandeur
Saint Laurent’s Spring 2026 unfolded beneath the Eiffel Tower with a giant monogram of hydrangeas and greenery—a stage set for women who slip between worlds.
Vaccarello drew her first as a leather-clad princess with the severity of Mapplethorpe, jewels glinting like trophies of conquest. Then, she appeared as an enigmatic Parisienne in flowing Rive Gauche silhouettes, power exercised through drape, color, and stride. Finally, she emerged as a modern aristocrat: descendants of the Duchess of Guermantes or Sargent’s “Madame X,” their silks traded for technical textiles, their elegance sharpened to meet contemporary realities. The structure was operatic, the symbolism layered, but the impulse felt clear—to show that the Saint Laurent woman is not fixed in one identity. She moves through legacies of provocation, intellectual sophistication, and aristocratic hauteur, reassembled for an audience that demands fluidity.
Which leads us to the question: if the house is gathering these archetypes into one, what new kind of authority is it trying to propose for today?
THE DIRECTION
THE WRAP UP
Vaccarello’s play this season was one of consolidation, less about invention than about drawing the line that connects rebellion, intellect, and heritage into a single silhouette.
The tailoring affirmed the house’s eternal codes, but the gowns and capes stretched into something grander, almost parodic, as if teasing the very idea of fashion’s royal court. The message, perhaps, is that Saint Laurent women can inhabit all three roles—princess, bohemian, aristocrat—without contradiction, because the modern stage requires that multiplicity. The risk here lies in repetition; the safety in refinement. What matters is the gesture: an insistence that Saint Laurent’s language of power remains elastic enough to contain both restraint and spectacle, discipline and drama. Whether this marks the beginning of a more expansive chapter or a well-executed holding pattern will be the story to watch.
The collection’s through-line is a shifting stage: women—like fashion itself—perform across overlapping scripts of heritage, intellect, and rebellion. Power is shown in transition, as legacy codes are rewritten for a world that asks for both authority and adaptability.
