This is an edition of the newsletter Show Notes, in which Samuel Hine reports from the front row of the fashion world. Sign up here to get it free.
In case you haven’t noticed, menswear is looking very Saint Laurent-coded right now. I don’t mean what we just saw on the Paris Fashion Week runways, necessarily. I mean men are actually dressing with the dark sensuality that has become Anthony Vaccarello’s calling card at YSL. Shoulder pads are reinflating after years of softness. Trench coats are replacing Gore-Tex. Ties are returning to necks everywhere. Sunglasses are going muscular and dramatic. There is more leather on the streets than in Cruising.
Is fur up next? How about… latex?
At Tuesday night’s Saint Laurent men’s show, which unofficially closed out the fall 2026 fashion season in front of 120 guests in the moodily lit rotunda of the Bourse de Commerce, the idea didn’t seem all that farfetched. On the runway, necks were adorned with inky fur stoles, as if the models had raided their grandmothers’ mink stashes. Others clutched oversized fluffy muffs. (All faux, of course.)
The many typically dramatic suits were sharp and angular, with Vaccarello’s trademark wide shoulder looming over a more feminine pinched waist and long, generous trousers. The colors were solemn and dark, a departure from recent seasons; from his front-row seat, brand-new YSL ambassador Connor Storrie stood out in a tan suit and shimmery yellow shirt.
Said Vaccarello, “It's darker than usual because I do a lot of colors, and maybe this season, with what’s happening in the world, I don’t want to pretend everything is great. So the darkness came to my mind.” He channeled a different flavor of tension by layering the black parade with silk scarves, supertight knit sweaters, and the odd pajama set, a contrast he said was inspired by a recent reading of the 1956 James Baldwin novel Giovanni’s Room, which depicts an American man in Paris struggling to reconcile his sexuality and masculinity.
“I loved the book because it’s very real, that idea of the man being in a normal life, let’s say, and not assuming his real nature,” Vaccarello said.
Speaking of: the designer confirmed that he hadn’t yet seen Heated Rivalry—not yet out in France—despite three of the series’ four main stars sitting at his show. But he expressed pride for beating the competition to sign the breakout Storrie to an exclusive deal. “I know everyone is fighting over him. And if you fight, I take.”
Maybe it’s Vaccarello’s work with Saint Laurent Productions, but the designer loves a plot twist. The latest movie he is supporting through the house’s film arm is Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother. “He has Beatrice Dalle and Gaspar Noé here, he’s really tapped into the film world,” said one of the flick’s stars, Luke Sabbat, before the show. “He’s not a poser.”
Enter boots so kinky they would make even Alexander Skarsgaard blush. After revealing thigh-high waders exactly a year ago, which titillated fashion and aroused red carpets around the world, Vaccarello upped the stakes with what looked like liquidy latex leggings, which tucked neatly into shiny black mules, as if you were making a beer run midway through a Berghain BDSM session.
In fact, the leggings were not latex but patent leather. They attach directly to the mules, which is about the only practical thing about them. Speaking backstage to the challenge of reimagining menswear season in and season out, Vaccarello acknowledged how extreme styling can define a look. “You still have the codes of masculinity, but it’s more sensual the way you wear the tights…It’s the way you mix things together that can give you another perspective.”
You might not be running out to your local latex-laden sex shop, but the slinky, shiny number speaks to how Vaccarello came to, ahem, dominate fashion. Ever since his landmark show in Morocco in 2022, the designer has surgically tailored classic menswear into a uniform that conjures lusty desire. The secret to YSL’s style influence isn’t actually all that complicated: Men want to wear it, and everyone else seems to want those who do. Vaccarello knows when to bring the sexy subtext to the fore and when to cloak it in mystery.
And before you write off the boots as a mere runway stunt, consider the internet-breaking likelihood that Storrie will slither into one of those looks sometime soon. Then recall the trajectory of last fall’s waders. Vaccarello’s suits and ties have undeniably captured menswear, but when those thigh-highs hit stores, they sold out too.