At Saint Laurent, Opulence Flirts With Simplicity (and Sensuality) for Fall 2025

Last night, in an ode to Yves Saint Laurent’s ’90s haute couture, Anthony Vaccarello gave us a celebration of shape and color for fall 2025. “During the ’90s, he was out of step with the times,” Vaccarello told W in an interview earlier this year, sharing that Saint Laurent kept his designs in line with his core aesthetic as grunge and minimalism took force, eschewing trends and leaning into the codes he’d so tenderly developed decades earlier. Vaccarello found this dedication moving—so his latest collection is all about the intuitive, the rawly emotive, and the way in which simplicity meets opulence at the house.

He did this by zeroing in on the beautiful core: garments came in a deeply saturated blood orange, a shining ruby red, lush emerald, a luminous chartreuse, and so many other radiant hues; washed satin and technical jersey gave each piece a sense of movement and volume. The opening dresses, blouses, and evening jackets were shaped like inverted triangles, exaggerated at the shoulders and narrow at the hips. The final closing looks turned this silhouette on its head: delicate silk and lace tops were paired with wide ballroom skirts ballooning below the hips. These last garments, in rich shades of brown and olive, were particularly jaw-dropping. The collection was elegant, but more than refined, it was deeply romantic, a pure exploration of each element of design—no frills are needed here.

During a time when the house is building its influence through film and literature, reaching beyond its 2010s rock star foundation and back to Saint Laurent’s legacy, there’s something particularly compelling in the unabashed beauty of the collection. It’s also exciting to see Vaccarello explore the sensual counterpart to his consistently sexy—and at times hauntingly provocative—aesthetic.