Anthony Vaccarello’s SS27 Is a Golden Love Letter to Saint Laurent

For Anthony Vaccarello, Spring/Summer 2027 arrived with all the signs of an ending.

There was the Eiffel Tower glowing behind the runway, three monumental chandeliers casting their light across a glossy black floor, and a collection that unfolded almost entirely in gold before quietly fading into black. Then came Charlotte Gainsbourg, a longtime Vaccarello muse, performing as the show drew to a close. Even the words accompanying the collection seemed to carry a sense of goodbye: “What passes sometimes leaves more light than what remains.”

After a decade at Saint Laurent, Vaccarello’s future at the house has been the subject of growing speculation. Neither Saint Laurent nor parent company Kering has confirmed that he is leaving, but the latest show inevitably gave those rumours new weight. 

Whether it was planned as a farewell or simply happened to feel like one, the collection was unmistakably personal.

Vaccarello began with gold — and plenty of it. Safari jackets, pencil skirts, trenches and fluid blouses appeared in metallic finishes, while long silk scarves wrapped around the neck and trailed dramatically behind the models. Rather than relying on a single shade of gold, he played with its many personalities, moving between lamé, brocade, organza, lace, mousseline and metallic textures. 

It was also a deeply Saint Laurent vocabulary. The safari jacket, trench coat, strong tailoring and unapologetic glamour all reached back to the codes established by Yves Saint Laurent, while the exaggerated shoulders, towering heels and oversized jewellery belonged firmly to Vaccarello’s own interpretation of the house.

Gold, in particular, carries its own history at Saint Laurent. Yves Saint Laurent famously embraced the colour throughout his work, and Vaccarello used it here almost as a celebration of the house itself.

But then, almost suddenly, the gold disappeared.

The final looks arrived entirely in black, with velvet tailoring and dramatic evening dresses replacing the metallic brilliance that had dominated the collection. It felt less like another change of colour than the closing of a curtain — the room suddenly quieter after all that light.

The decision also carried a reference to Saint Laurent’s own history. Vaccarello’s black finale reversed the ending of Yves Saint Laurent’s Fall 1991 Rive Gauche collection, which famously concluded in gold.

That sense of looking backwards while firmly leaving his own mark has defined much of Vaccarello’s tenure. Over the years, he has repeatedly returned to the Saint Laurent archive, taking familiar pieces and silhouettes and stripping them down, sharpening them or pushing them into something more contemporary. His latest collection felt like the most concentrated expression of that approach yet.

So, was this the end?

For now, there is no official answer. But if Vaccarello’s Spring/Summer 2027 collection does eventually become his final chapter at Saint Laurent, it would be difficult to imagine a more fitting farewell.