Was it Hedi Slimane’s farewell at Saint Laurent? Or the beginning of something no one had guessed at: La Maison Yves Saint Laurent, a new, or reconstituted, haute couture house? Whichever it may transpire to be—all gossip put aside for a few minutes—the abiding truth about fashion is that it craves and thrives on surprise. Hedi Slimane’s was a full-on shock: a collection which pushed the ’80s shoulder to a pinnacle of upstanding exaggeration, drove glittery hemlines up, plunged necklines, belted waists with flourishing side-bows, poufed skirts, clad legs in sheer black tights, and put feet into stiletto pumps. What with the slicked-back hair, red lipstick, and triangular earrings, it read as a sublimated 21st-century throwback to every Helmut Newton–era Vogue shoot fashion remembers. There was an homage to Yves Saint Laurent in every look, yet the collection was just as uncompromisingly faithful to the ultra-ultra-skinny youth aesthetic which Hedi Slimane has pushed in fashion for his whole career.
There was another huge shock to the system too: that this show was held in a beautiful 18th-century house on the Rue de l’Université, and conducted in bright lighting as models filed out—precisely in the style which was standard in old haute couture houses until the 1980s. The numbers of the outfits were even called out as each girl appeared, yet there was nothing satirical or ironic in the presentation. At that proximity, the quality of the clothes can’t be faked—and it was impeccable. From the smoothly fine fit of the leather dresses to the raven-wing sequins, the black ostrich coat with the pink- and turquoise-painted tips, and the extraordinary black columns and flounced tiers of the evening dresses, this collection proved that Slimane can cut it and fit it with the best.
There is no doubt that the early ’80s have been triggering designers recently (J.W.Anderson’s vast leg-of-mutton sleeves were the bellwether, last season), but Slimane it was who seized the opportunity to plug straight back into the power of the main man, Yves Saint Laurent. There is still no cut-and-dried announcement about whether this means that Hedi Slimane is staying on at Saint Laurent, possibly in an upgraded couture capacity, or whether the incredible red fox fur heart-shaped cape at the end of this show was his kiss-off to fashion for the moment. If it was, he is heading off covered in glory.
