Tue 8th March
Gilt-Plaques chairs engraved with names. No music – only a sound announcing the numbers as each model descended the marble staircase of an haute couture house. What was this, 1985? Yes – look at the shoulders! Oh, wait, no, it’s Saint Laurent, where Hedi Slimane audaciously presented not a ready-to-wear collection but a series of couture looks in the label’s new digs, a renovated mansion on the Rive Gauche. They paid homage to Saint Laurent’s eighties couture – or, well, to the eighties generally, to the emphatic shoulders (in skyward-pointing mink or great fans of pleated lamé and tulle) and to the attitude. But, from the opening Le Smoking to the final heart-shaped fur coat, this was an affection homage to Yves through and through. A swan song, or a new chapter? We can only wait to find out…
Photographs by Jason Lloyd-Evans
