Anthony Vaccarello doesn’t do spectacle. Saint Laurent Winter 2026 arrives without fanfare, without the architectural drama that lesser designers mistake for vision. Instead, it’s a collection about the body underneath the clothes, how a man moves, breathes, exists in the space between private and public. The silhouette is almost deliberately unglamorous: lean, sinuous, slightly fragile. Soft fabrics that read like they’ve already been lived in. Textures that suggest wear before the garment ever touches skin.
This is menswear that trusts vulnerability as a design principle, not a liability. The smoking jacket, Saint Laurent’s signature, doesn’t swagger here. It protects. Sharp shoulders frame a body that’s allowed to be exposed, to be seen. The black palette isn’t about severity; it’s about clarity. Everything else falls away. You’re left with the essential conversation between the wearer and the cloth.
The Morning Ritual, Deconstructed
The collection’s narrative is almost mundane: a man getting dressed. Unbuttoned to buttoned. Unclothed to clothed. But Vaccarello mines that ritual for its psychological weight. A striped shirt under an overcoat reads like morning-after dressing, the clothes you grab when you’re not thinking about how you look, only about moving forward. Pleated trousers in grey suggest a man who’s comfortable in institutional codes but refuses to be defined by them. Sunglasses become a tool of detachment, a way of moving through the city without fully engaging.
There’s no irony here. The business codes, the tie, the formal shirt, the polished shoe, aren’t being mocked or subverted. They’re being inhabited differently. A man can wear these things and still be honest about what’s underneath.
The Casting: Faces Over Types
Vaccarello’s casting director Samuel Ellis Scheinman assembled a lineup that resists easy categorization. Alvar af Schultén, Alvar Lambert, Bai, Boy Dijkhuis, Bukwop Kir, Chubath Kutien, Daniel Awaridhe, Eythan Delalondre, Gaye Serigne, Jarrod Lees, Mamadou Sarr, Nicola Macchi, Opeyemi Ajibola, Oscar Fishman, Samuel Elie, Vasilis Lelidis, Victor Buysse, and Wal Ruop—the range is deliberate. Not a house aesthetic, but a collection of individuals. Each face carries its own story, its own relationship to the clothes. The runway becomes less about a unified vision and more about how different bodies, different energies, different presences wear the same codes. That’s the real intelligence of the casting: it proves the clothes work because they’re flexible enough to accommodate contradiction.
The Details That Matter
Hair by Duffy sits close to the head, no volume, no drama, just presence. Pat McGrath’s makeup is almost invisible, which is to say it’s perfectly calibrated. The nails by Alexandra Janowski carry a subtle shine, a small gesture toward care without announcement. Emma Chadwick’s choreography moves the models through the space with a kind of casual purpose, as if they’re walking through corridors rather than performing on a runway. Everything is restrained. Everything is intentional.
The Point
Saint Laurent Men’s Winter 2026 is a collection for men who understand that dressing is a form of self-knowledge, not self-expression. It’s for those who’ve learned that the most powerful statement you can make is admitting what you’re protecting, and why. In a menswear season that often mistakes loudness for confidence, Vaccarello’s quiet precision feels radical.
Show Credits
Designer: Anthony Vaccarello
Hair Stylist: Duffy
Makeup Artist: Pat McGrath
Casting Director: Samuel Ellis Scheinman
Manicurist: Alexandra Janowski
Choreographer: Emma Chadwick
Discover the collection in our gallery:
