At Saint Laurent, Dressing and Undressing

PARIS — Nakedness is intimacy, truth, vulnerability. Dressing is how we prepare ourselves to confront the world, playing the part we have chosen or that was bestowed upon us. In the Saint Laurent men’s collection presented tonight in the oh-so-masterful atrium of the Fondation Pinault’s Bourse de Commerce museum, Anthony Vaccarello reflected on dressing and undressing, and the moment when one gives way to the other, using James Baldwin’s 1956 novel “Giovanni’s Room” and its unfiltered depiction of homoerotic love as a starting point.

Ever prone to reduction, Vaccarello kept things tight: the palette strict and the silhouette vertical, yet much more fluid and sinuous than the straight, boxy lines he has favoured so far. Waists were nipped, lapels were wide and so were the trousers. “To be relevant with black and simplicity is a challenge,” he said backstage a few minutes before the show.

Did he deliver? Partly. This was a collection that felt sensual and seductive because it drew you in, asking to be seen up close. It didn’t add much to Vaccarello’s exploration of what contemporary masculinity looks like within the frame of Saint Laurent, but there was a lot to discover in the details. After a parade of all-black opening looks, the designer moved on to stylish explorations of the ”broken suit,” mixing midnight blue and black, black and grey, brown and blue, chalkstripe and solid, adding striped shirts and ties to the mix, the collars and cuffs untidily peaking a boo. Leather coats came with contrasting belts, and pullovers were long, with plunging scoopnecks. In the finale, striped boxers and shirts were paired with thigh-high latex boots.

It was all impeccably executed, but the frisson of eroticism that Vaccarello has mastered so well in the past felt trapped in a series of affectations — the cravats, the cuffs, the collars, and all those little Prada-isms. What one expects from a Vaccarello show is a focus so sharp it’s almost relentless. This outing wasn’t that. But hey, it was so very elegant.