Ten years and two days after his 2016 debut, Anthony Vaccarello went back to his favourite stage, the Trocadéro, with the Eiffel Tower lit up behind the runway, and presented a collection almost entirely in gold. Saint Laurent's spring/summer 2027 show, staged on the evening of 29 September 2026, sent out 59 looks. As Dazed counted, 49 of them were gold before the collection switched to black. It was one of the standout shows of Paris Fashion Week, and one of the most talked-about.

The set: chandeliers and the tower

Three huge, candlelit gold chandeliers hung above a glossy black catwalk. They were modelled on the ballroom of the Hôtel InterContinental, where Yves Saint Laurent began showing couture in 1976. Dazed noted that each had three tiers, echoing the shape of the Eiffel Tower, which sparkled on the hour, at the start of the show and again during the finale. Guests arrived to Miles Davis's score for Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Elevator to the Gallows), recorded in Paris in 1957.

Vaccarello skipped his usual backstage interviews. Instead, a handwritten note sent with dark flowers said the collection was "very personal" and "charged with emotion", and that he would rather "let you experience all its shades."

The gold: from evening gowns to everyday classics

The gold comes from the archive. In Yves Saint Laurent's own collections, gold mostly meant evening wear: brocade, lamé, lace, sequinned leather. Vaccarello took it away from the gown and applied it to the house's everyday classics:

The trench coat, first shown by Saint Laurent in 1962, kept its epaulettes, belt and storm flap.

The saharienne, the safari jacket from 1968, cinched at the waist and lengthened with trailing skirts.

Pencil skirts, wrap skirts, frilled blouses, luncheon suits and cocktail dresses.

WWD listed the fabrics: lamé, organza, guipure lace, chiffon, brocade, jacquard, metallic cotton and latex. The gold ranged from brownish and reddish to foil-bright, and was crinkled, pleated or ruffled.

Gold leaf on latex: why it's unusual

The technical headline was gold leaf laid on latex. As Lampoon explained, most metallic fabric has the metal inside the yarn: lamé weaves flat metal strips into the cloth, and lurex is cut from coated film. Gold leaf is different. It's hammered to roughly one ten-thousandth of a millimetre and has to be glued onto a surface, traditionally something rigid like wood, plaster, parchment or leather.

Latex stretches. Laid on rubber, the leaf holds when the body is still and cracks along the lines of movement. On the runway, those cracks became part of the finish: a hard metallic shell over a soft, stretchy layer. Lampoon compared it to Japanese surihaku gold leaf on silk and to European gilt leather, but in both of those the base stays still. Here, it sits directly on the body.

Between the gilded looks, organza, chiffon and silk mousseline in amber and cognac let light through instead of reflecting it, and guipure lace left skin showing between the gold motifs.

Accessories

Laetitia Crahay designed filigree earrings made of fine twisted wire. Corrado De Biase made the shoes, some built from gilded metal chain on heels shaped like twisting snakes. Models also wore jewelled turbans and scarves in red, black and ochre, with jewelled buttons and sash belts on the tailoring.

The black finale and Charlotte Gainsbourg

The gold ended at look 50, a black velvet suit with jewelled buttons, and was followed by black looks: double-breasted velvet tunics over skirts slit to the thigh, then gowns with billowing sleeves, trains and black tulle. Velvet absorbs light just as gold leaf reflects it. Critics pointed out that this reversed Yves Saint Laurent's autumn/winter 1991 Rive Gauche show, which ended in gold.

Then came a surprise: Charlotte Gainsbourg, in black suiting, sang a song whose chorus named the founder. Vaccarello hugged her, and they walked hand in hand along the line of models. Afterwards, Lampoon reported, he took a good-luck charm from his pocket and gave it to his five-year-old son, Luca. Charms are a house tradition. In 1962, Yves Saint Laurent had a jewelled heart made as a talisman, and it appeared in his shows until 2002.

Was it goodbye?

Vogue's review opened by saying it looked like a farewell, and Dazed and Harper's Bazaar Singapore asked the same question. At the time of writing, no departure had been officially confirmed. Either way, it read as a summing-up of Vaccarello's decade at the house.

How to wear the gold trend

1. Pick one gold classic. A metallic trench or a gold pencil skirt, worn with black, is the quickest way to bring the runway into real life.

2. Wear gold in the daytime. Vaccarello's point was that gold belongs on everyday shapes, so try it with a white T-shirt or a plain knit.

3. Pair it with black velvet for evening: shine against matt.

4. Pick one statement accessory, like filigree earrings or a chain-detail heel, and keep everything else simple.

Sources: Lampoon, "Saint Laurent SS27: gold leaf on latex, forty-nine gilded looks", 30 September 2026; Vogue, WWD, Dazed and Harper's Bazaar Singapore runway reviews, 29–30 September 2026.