Saint Laurent Is Bringing Back This Major ‘90s Trend

Paris Fashion Week is the grand finale of fashion month. With some of the biggest names in the industry presenting their collections, it’s truly hyped for good reason. With that said, Saint Laurent, one of the pinnacle labels of French luxury fashion, has become a highlight each season for its signature aesthetic under Creative Director Anthony Vaccarello. French girl chic? Vaccarello has it, and all of its different iterations, down to a science. For Saint Laurent’s Fall 2020 runway collection on Feb. 25 in Paris, the brand created a buzzy indoor space with a blank beige background (save for the YSL logo), which models marched across guided by multiple spotlights.

The event took place at Trocadero near the lit-up Eiffel Tower, with blaring synth music, and each dressed in pieces that had an ‘90s aesthetic. But one element may have been the most covetable and thought-provoking of them all: all the liquid latex looks.

"Between gilded salons and nocturnal places inhabited by well mannered girls and bad boys, the Saint Laurent woman loves to take risks, she wears lace and cashmere with latex," explains the show notes.

Models wore shiny, high-impact latex in the form of leggings, high-waisted pants, skirts, dresses and boots. There were even latex tops paired with more conventional pencil skirts, and with lace and tiny bralettes, proving the material to be just a little bit more adaptable than you may have previously thought. And this fabric wasn’t solely rendered in traditional black, either. On the runway, it manifested in hues ranging from raspberry pink to deep purple, cobalt blue, and maroon.

In recent seasons, Saint Laurent has become more well-known for an easy, bohemian notion of dress. Never far from flowy dresses, animal prints, strong shouldered leather jackets and natural color palettes, Vaccarello exemplified the cool French girl through this form of dressing. However, the edgier looks of the new collection proved that there's a totally different side to this signature look. In contrast with some of the tamer pieces in the collection, such as the leather shorts and oversized blazers, the latex pieces felt subversive and fresh. "Everything is a matter of tension between discipline and pleasure, Saint Laurent’s chic is always born from imperfection," further explains the notes.

Besides the prevalence of the slick body-clinging separates, Saint Laurent also displayed the value in mixing bold, unexpected colors together. Take, for example, the deep pinks, purples, and reds which came together in the form of big blazers and skin-tight leggings. Other combinations included forest green and royal purple, yellow, and burgundy. Showcased in everyday items like blazers and skinny pants, the bold sense of color felt more wearable and easier to transition to everyday life, than if it were styled on wilder pieces.

Overall, it was great to see Vaccarello branch out into a new sense of French cool girl while still retaining some of the elements of his bohemian-at-heart Saint Laurent customer.