A Saint Laurent show before dark?

Yes, it happened on a sunny Tuesday afternoon and it was delightful, staged in the rotunda of the Bourse de Commerce art museum, where the fashion pack could also enjoy a mesmerizing installation by French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot of white ceramic bowls drifting across a shallow basin of pool-blue water, occasionally colliding and producing soothing pings.

There was nothing as simple as blue and white in the men’s collection by Anthony Vaccarello, who is tightening his grip on sophisticated color combinations as an immediately recognizable YSL brand code.

He reprised the ocher-khaki combination from his terrific fall women’s collection, also sliding together mint and navy, and blending together more autumnal shades, too, like gold, forest green and bordeaux. (The shades in Larry Stanton portraits were a reference.)

Vaccarello’s bean-pole models filed around the pool with a nonchalant attitude, their hands shoved into the pockets of jaunty little shorts, or tapered, multipleat pants with an ’80s vibe. All of them wore outsized acrylic sunglasses that brought to mind the ones Johnny Depp famously sported in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”

It was an about-face in mood from Vaccarello’s Robert Mapplethorpe-esque fall 2025 collection, which WWD described as “desk to dungeon” as everything was worn with black leather thigh-high boots, which have already pretty much sold out, by the way.

“Less dark, more light, more sensual — more fun,” was how the designer summed up his spring effort, meant to evoke “a suspended moment” somewhere between Paris and Fire Island in the ’70s. 

Tucked into the show program was a black-and-white snapshot of founder Yves Saint Laurent on the tennis court circa 1950, his gangly legs poking out of jaunty shorts just like those on the runway.

But Vaccarello poured most of his design energy into shirts, which were sensational, with jutting shoulders thanks to extra-long, removable stays, and generous ’80s volumes that billowed over those tapered trousers, some with paper-bag waists.

The shirts came in fluid silks with military pockets, or nearly sheer technical nylons in surprising colors like lemon and persimmon. Some were cropped like bomber jackets; one resembled an anorak and was tucked in neatly.

Tailoring followed the same fluid lines, and solid-colored silk neckties were worn with every exit, tucked into the shirt between buttons three and four.

“It’s a simple gesture, but it gives another perspective of the silhouette,” Vaccarello said. “It’s less strict, less in an office.”

Thanks for the styling tip, and the early call time, Anthony!