The light, the reveal, the promise of another Parisian morning dawning. This is more than a picture-perfect, postcard fantasy of the city. It is a reality lived daily, in rooms and apartments across Paris. With it comes the residue of everything that has happened before dawn, brought into focus as night gives way to morning. It is a liminal moment, intimate and deeply personal, one that belongs to everyone yet feels uniquely individual. This threshold between night and day becomes the emotional foundation of Anthony Vaccarello’s Winter 2026 collection for Saint Laurent.

The collection explores intimacy, vulnerability, and an eroticism grounded in personal expression rather than spectacle. What emerges is Vaccarello’s continued interrogation of maleness and masculinity at the house of Saint Laurent, not as a fixed identity, but as something shaped by experience, memory, and desire.

Courtesy of Saint Laurent

Vaccarello looked to Giovanni’s Room (1956) as a point of departure. Baldwin’s novel, radical in its portrayal of sexual longing and its rejection of post-war bourgeois masculinity, resonated for its psychological precision. Vaccarello was drawn in particular to the tension of David leaving Giovanni’s Paris room at dawn for the final time, trading intimacy and desire for the life waiting beyond the door.

This tension is expressed through a lean, controlled silhouette. Soft, crumpled textures suggest wear and use, while sharp shoulders provide structure without eliminating vulnerability. Skin is revealed and concealed in measured ways, creating an eroticism that remains restrained. The house’s signature smoking appears almost protective in its construction, while high boots ground the look, reinforcing a sense of stability and presence.

Courtesy of Saint Laurent

Throughout, Vaccarello returns to black, the most Saint Laurent of colours, chosen for its ability to hold contradiction: classic and iconoclastic, severe and sensual. It is a colour that absorbs light rather than reflects it, reinforcing the collection’s focus on interiority and restraint.