The most famous suit in the world, Le Smoking by Yves Saint Laurent, has returned to the Parisian catwalks 60 years after its invention.
Designed by the late couturier to be worn by men in smoking rooms to protect clothing from the smell of cigarettes, he adapted it for women, slimming the trousers and lapels. It was not a runaway success (only one from his 1966 collection was sold), but it became a global symbol of power dress and gender dismantling, and would appear in every collection until Saint Laurent retired in 2002.
Worn on the opening night of Paris Fashion Week by 14 models, each with a hand shoved nonchalantly in a pocket, the 2026 version had been further adapted by Saint Laurent’s current designer, Anthony Vaccarello, who was marking his decade in the job. It wasn’t the sharp tailoring synonymous with Saint Laurent, but rather an ’80s Wall Street look, worn with maximum jewelry and a makeup palette lifted from Robert Palmer’s Addicted to Love video.
Hot on the heels of Harry Styles’ black-and-white striped bouclé Chanel suit at the Brits, some even arrived with barely any stripes, though they were more reminiscent of the dollar-saturated world of Wall Street than Nigel Farage. As if to drive home the power-dressing theme, the coat section featured huge shearling cardigans and sky-high heels.
Despite the distractions that come with a show held in a modernist glass “apartment” in front of the Eiffel Tower illuminated by 20,000 flickering light bulbs, Kate Moss and Michelle Pfeiffer in the front row, and an oversized replica of a bust that Saint Laurent kept in his own home, current events had altered the mood. Wildly materialistic displays of power and wealth don’t look very good, especially now.
But Paris Fashion Week, the largest of the big four, is a big financial and cultural moment for the French capital. On Monday, Pascal Morand, executive president of the Federation of Haute Couture and Fashion, told reporters that there will be “no cancellation or modification” to the calendar, which extends until next week, specifying that they remain “very attentive to the situation.”
In reaction to global events, the luxury market has stagnated a bit. According to Kering, the conglomerate that owns YSL, annual revenue last year was around €2.6bn (£2.3bn), a year-on-year decline of around 8%. Still, the fashion house is one of Paris’s biggest exports, says Simon Longland, director of fashion buying at Harrods. “While the overall market has been more volatile, the brand has shown resilience and improvement,” he told The Guardian. People, he said, still bought it.
Fashion likes to see itself as a reflection of culture. But it’s also about aspirations and fantasies, and dressing for the world you want, rather than the one you actually have.
