…and opens Paris Fashion Week with a splash!
Saint Laurent’s summer 2026 collection felt every bit like the season: bright, airy, relaxed. The colors were bright, the venue reminiscent of the beach or the poolside—opening Paris Fashion Week with a splash. It also marks the label’s return to the official menswear schedule after two and a half years of absence.
The show was held in the Kering-owned Bourse de Commerce in Paris, the site of the former stock exchange, and which now houses the art collection of company founder François Pinault. To make the set even more summer-y, it featured a pool-like installation with floating white porcelain bowls called “Clinamen” by French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot.
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According to Saint Laurent creative director Anthony Vaccarello’s show notes, the reference for the collection is Fire Island, a destination near New York which has long been associated with the queer community. Per The Guardian, Fire Island has inspired books, such as LGBTQ+ icon Edmund White’s Forgetting Elena (1973) and even an eponymous film. Vaccarello described the show as being “somewhere between Paris and Fire Island, where escape becomes elegance, and desire becomes a language.”
Despite its summertime feels, the show was also a bit haunting, with a rather curious choice for a soundtrack for a summer collection—tracks that are mostly atmospheric and moody. Watching the models sashay around the installation, the hypnotic music made more sense as it draws your attention to each piece of clothing and accessory.
The first look featured a pair of short shorts worn with a silk shirt the color of persimmons. The ensemble—especially the pair of shorts—brought to mind those once worn by founder Yves Saint Laurent in his youth, with the look completed with statement sunglasses. In fact, it was reported that tucked into the show program was a black-and-white snapshot of founder Saint Laurent himself, rocking a pair of short shorts no different from the ones shown on the runway.
This set the mood for all the looks: there were more shorts (hey, of course it’s summer!) but also pants, trenches, and blazers—each one loose, relaxed, and flowy, but still with a semblance of form and structure. Some of the ensembles were beach-ready, then there were those you could wear to work on a bright summer day. All the models strutted by wearing outsized acrylic sunglasses.
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The colors reminded one of the beach: bright yellow the color of lemons, pool blue, the blazing orange of a sunset, and a palette made up of different sandy hues. But there were also more subdued colors—violets, browns, darker shades of blue—particularly in workwear.
Spotted in the runway show were A-listers including Francis Ford Coppola, Rami Malek, Aaron and Sam Taylor-Johnson, and Saint Laurent muse Betty Catroux.
It was a sleek collection, one that would most likely be a hit—and a hit is what Saint Laurent is in dire need of these days. As previously reported by several news outlets and also here on The POST, luxury brands have been struggling with sluggish sales.
Saint Lauren’t mother company Kering, for example, reported a first quarter revenue that was down a staggering 14%. Zooming in on Saint Laurent, it has also posted dismal sales that shrank 9%, putting it in the middle of its stablemates: Gucci’s revenue is down 25%, while Bottega Veneta’s revenue is up by 4%.
We can only wait and see if Saint Laurent and Vaccarello’s latest collection will also make a splash in sales. For now, you can sit back, relax, and imagine you’re in the beach as you watch the full show on the official Yves Saint Laurent website.
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