This is an edition of the newsletter Show Notes, in which Samuel Hine reports from the front row of the fashion world. Sign up here to get it free.
In case you haven’t noticed, menswear is looking very Saint Laurent-coded right now. I don’t mean what we just saw on the Paris Fashion Week runways, necessarily. I mean men are actually dressing with the dark sensuality that has become Anthony Vaccarello’s calling card at YSL. Shoulder pads are reinflating after years of softness. Trench coats are replacing Gore-Tex. Ties are returning to necks everywhere. Sunglasses are going muscular and dramatic. There is more leather on the streets than in Cruising.
Is fur up next? How about… latex?
At Tuesday night’s Saint Laurent men’s show, which unofficially closed out the fall 2026 fashion season in front of 120 guests in the moodily lit rotunda of the Bourse de Commerce, the idea didn’t seem all that farfetched. On the runway, necks were adorned with inky fur stoles, as if the models had raided their grandmothers’ mink stashes. Others clutched oversized fluffy muffs. (All faux, of course.)
Courtesy of Saint Laurent
The many typically dramatic suits were sharp and angular, with Vaccarello’s trademark wide shoulder looming over a more feminine pinched waist and long, generous trousers. The colors were solemn and dark, a departure from recent seasons; from his front-row seat, brand-new YSL ambassador Connor Storrie stood out in a tan suit and shimmery yellow shirt.
Said Vaccarello, “It’s darker than usual because I do a lot of colors, and maybe this season, with what’s happening in the world, I don’t want to pretend everything is great. So the darkness came to my mind.” He channeled a different flavor of tension by layering the black parade with silk scarves, supertight knit sweaters, and the odd pajama set, a contrast he said was inspired by a recent reading of the 1956 James Baldwin novel Giovanni’s Room, which depicts an American man in Paris struggling to reconcile his sexuality and masculinity.
Courtesy of Saint Laurent
