In 2016, Anthony Vaccarello showed his debut Saint Laurent collection inside an under-construction brand headquarters – founded as a 17th century monastery and later rebuilt for the French Ministry of Defence. For SS25, the designer returned to the location, now finished and majestic. Guests sat around a vast open-air, gold-rimmed rotunda, framing an Yves blue floor – not Klein but Saint Laurent, cast in the same colour as the designer’s famous Marrakech home. Prior to the show, a burst of Parisian rainfall made the floor shimmer, reflecting the floodlights with a neo-noir seduction that echoed the collection itself.

“No other House is as linked to a quintessential female archetype as Saint Laurent, whose ideal woman is more complex than the seductive perfection of classic muses,” the show notes read. “As Yves Saint Laurent could have said, I am the Saint Laurent woman.” And so Yves himself became the muse as much as the women he celebrated. As with Vaccarello’s FW24 menswear collection, the couturier’s immaculate, suited style became the framework for this season’s tailoring, drawing generous, double-breasted shapes accessorised with thick-rimmed eyewear and short or slicked-back hair. Flight jackets, trenches and opulent dressing robes accented the silhouette with power dressing shapes classically seen in 80s Wall Street films about characters with names like Jock, Trenton and Bud. Imbued with an inherent dark romance, Vaccarello’s protagonists equally mean business.

As the show continued, jackets began to be removed and muted suits morphed into vibrant skirted, draped and embroidered looks. Celebrating Yves’ love of the arts and the artists he famously collaborated and partied with, vibrant colours were gradually dropped into the mix, rich gold, deep green, and soft tan, before exploding into technicolour: a beautifully embellished brocade jacket over a gold dress that burst around the neck like champagne exploding out of a popped bottle. Similar looks in contrasting tones and textures followed, painted by way of lace details, underskirts, ruffles, silk, suede and abstract shapes.

From Le Smoking to the artistic tributes of SS88 haute couture via Yves himself, Antony Vaccarello’s ability to reframe references has seen the designer solidify not only a silhouette and sensibility, but an attitude and spirit akin to the House’s founder himself. And such a lovely tribute, each look was named after women who have been vital to the House throughout the decades, the likes of Betty, Amalia, Dovima and Lou.