Anthony Vaccarello’s Saint Laurent gold collection landed at Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2026 as both a celebration and a statement, with the Eiffel Tower glowing behind a runway drenched in every shade of the metal from yellowy 24K through to deep, antique pigments.
Ten years into his tenure at Saint Laurent, Vaccarello has never been subtle about his intentions. This show was not about subtlety either. It was about accumulation: of texture, of history, of a very particular kind of excess that somehow never tips into vulgarity.
The Saint Laurent Gold Collection: Everything, All at Once
Safari silhouettes, oversize sleeves and aviator-inspired jackets all received a metallic treatment, as if lit from somewhere inside the fabric itself. The details followed suit: big gold buttons, sash belts and shapely collars pushing the palette as far as it would go. Huge, billowing organza gowns sat alongside velvet jackets with distinct sheer bows, the whole thing carrying a bone-deep 1980s flair that Vaccarello never tried to disguise.
The show notes quoted Yves Saint Laurent directly: ‘I love gold; it’s a magical color. When reflecting a woman, it’s the color of the sun.’ Vaccarello was not hiding his working. This was archival thinking made explicit, the kind of homage that earns its reference points by understanding them rather than simply repeating them.
What kept the Saint Laurent gold collection from becoming a one-note exercise was the sheer variety of textiles Vaccarello pulled into the conversation. Disco-worthy lamé and latex coated in a thick layer of gold leaf for an almost bejewelled effect. Guipure lace and brocades already intricate on their own terms, then drenched and dripped in gold until they stood at a different register entirely. Crinkled effects, jackets worn open, hulking chandelier earrings and bejewelled turbans were deliberate anchors in an aesthetic of considered excess.
According to A&E Magazine, the brand framed the collection around the idea that in an era where dialogue is diminishing, clothing has the capacity to connect and add nuance. That is a considerable claim to make through a bejewelled turban and a velvet coat. Whether Vaccarello pulls it off is, at least in part, a matter of what you think fashion is actually for.
Archives, Leather and the Long Shadow of 1978
Vaccarello’s habit of pulling from the house’s past is well documented, and this season was no exception. As The Walk noted, echoes of 1978 and a spring steeped in leather set the tone for the luxury fashion conversation surrounding this Paris Fashion Week presentation. It situates the Saint Laurent gold collection not as a sudden swing towards maximalism but as a continuation of a longer creative argument Vaccarello has been making since he took the chair a decade ago.
The front row had the expected wattage: Hailey Bieber, Zoë Kravitz, Post Malone and Rosé occupied prime positions, while Donatella Versace and Pierpaolo Piccioli were there to show support. Whether the celebrity turnout added to the collection or merely framed it, the clothes could hold their own without the scaffolding.
In Vaccarello’s version of Saint Laurent, strong shoulders have never gone away, the going-out dress was never cancelled and everything, eventually, tends towards gold. After ten years, that is less a repeated formula than a fully developed point of view. Saint Laurent under his direction has become a house that knows exactly what it is, which, in the current landscape of perpetual repositioning, is rarer than it looks.
The Spring/Summer 2026 show opened Paris Fashion Week, and with this collection Vaccarello made clear he considers that position a responsibility, not just a scheduling slot.
