Situated far west in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, Saint Laurent takes us to Marrakech, exhibiting their latest contemporary archetypal Spring-Summer 2023 Men’s Collection.

Amid the vast, airy unknown of the awe-inspiring set situated in the center of the Agafay desert, lay a ring-shaped luminous oasis promoting admiration for the intangible beauty of Morocco. With influence from the ingenious mind of Paul Bowles, particularly in his 1949 novel The Sheltering Sky, this space becomes the focal point for YSL’s current creative director, Anthony Vaccarello, in collaboration with Es Devlin, to celebrate the shared affinity that encapsulates Marrakech. Creating a striking juxtaposition between hope and mystery as a metaphor for life’s thrilling complexity.

In Bowles’ timeless words: “We think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that’s so deeply a part of your being that you can’t even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.”

With Yves Saint Laurent seeking intimate refuge in Marrakech in 1966, the city became the designer’s scenic oasis where he carved out the essence of tranquility and ease in contrast to his all-engrossing Parisian work agenda. Evoking from the eminent personal significance of Marrakech for the Maison’s founder was an evocative backdrop idea for Vaccarello. 

For this collection, the construction of the line that constitutes a ‘masculine’ wardrobe and the attribution of ‘feminine’ clothes radically diffuses here. Perhaps the most extraordinary seminal garment of the Saint Laurent category, the tuxedo, once again gets reinterpreted, refined, and imbued with possibility, a continuation of the variations Vaccarello inspects in the house’s Autumn Winter 2022 Women’s Collection. 

All-encompassing choices enclose the contemporary collar and shoulder solutions, single and double-breasted options, and a debonair yet modern cream iteration of the tuxedo in lightweight silk faille. A predominant high waist and wide leg create an elongated shape occasionally interrupted with narrow or boxy accents.

Becalm because paralleling an existence of ease envelopes the silhouettes typical of Marrakech. Looser, lightened, fluid pieces are the outer garments; gathered satin coats envelop the body almost to the ground, while tailored jackets have a graphic sharpness. Grain de poudre, a finely tactile wool fabric with a long association at the house – Yves Saint Laurent loved using it – makes a recurrent showing through multiple looks.

Watch the full show below: