Anthony Vaccarello Embraces Extreme Social Distancing

Photos courtesy of Saint Laurent.

Anthony Vaccarello, the creative director at Saint Laurent, has unveiled YSL’s Women’s Summer 2021 collection, and in a year filled with turmoil and chaos, the collection offers a sense of reprieve. “I wanted to focus on the essence of things,” says Vaccarello of the collection. “I think it’s a sign of the times. But I didn’t want anything bleak or heavy. The desert, to me, symbolizes that yearn for serenity, open space, a slower rhythm. The clothes are also softer, the spirit of the collection is more gentle, stripped back.”

After departing from the customary Paris Fashion Week schedule earlier this year, Saint Laurent has continued to set its own pace. With models sporting sharp silhouettes and gold chains in a secluded desert, the collection is a sign of the times: extreme social distancing coupled with Zoom-ready formalwear on top and barely there bottoms. It’s the balance of comfort and sex appeal we all crave in the stay-at-home era. Leaving behind a year that’s been at once hectic and static, the Summer 2021 collection looks to a future powered by the freedom of movement.

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A selection of jewelry featured in the collection are designed by Claude Lalanne.