Saint Laurent's new creative director Anthony Vaccarello plays on fashion's enduring love of black and punctuates with texture, silhouette and overt sex appeal

Vaccarello has big shoes to fill following the departure of Hedi Slimane
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Emma McCarthy28 September 2016

Storied fashion house Saint Laurent began a new chapter last night when Anthony Vaccarello, the newly appointed creative director, unveiled his debut collection.

If his predecessor Hedi Slimane relied on the perennial cool of rock 'n' roll codes to bring in the customers, Vaccarello is banking on fashion's enduring love of black to keep tills ringing.

Remaining steadfastly devoted to his signatures, Belgian Vaccarello offered an homage to the moody hue which was punctuated only with flashes of gold lamé.

What the collection lacked in colour it made up for in texture, silhouette and overt sex appeal. LBD's - of which there was no short supply - came crafted from cobweb lace, shimmering sequins or vinyl leather and featured corset waists, plunging necklines, thigh-grazing hem lengths and exaggerated shoulders. These were dresses designed for the girl with places to be - but only after dark.

Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty

Sharp tailoring - another of his calling cards - featured too with sleeveless tuxedo jackets and slim-fitting cocktail trousers referencing Yves Saint Laurent's iconic Le Smoking jacket. The inclusion of jeans and denim jackets nodded to the new and younger Saint Laurent, rebranded so during Slimane's reign.

Vaccerello has previously worked for Karl Lagerfeld at Fendi and most recently Donatella Versace who enlisted Vaccarello to design offshoot label Versus. The 34-year-old designer also launched his own eponymous label in 2008, which he has currently suspended in order to focus on his new job at the pinnacle of French fashion.

Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty

Certainly, he has big shoes to fill. While Hedi Slimane's controversial reign over the house failed to win many fans in the industry - among his most contentious moves was the decision to drop the first name of the house’s celebrated founder “Yves” from label’s name - there’s little doubt over his commercial success.

According to company results posted in 2014, Slimane succeeded in more than doubling revenues to the tune of around $787 million within three years. Among his most sellable tactics was the ability to create accessible designs with aspirational ambitions, offering a wardrobe of luxury basic items which included skinny jeans, baby doll dresses and leather biker jackets with four figure price tags.

Among the label's most recent money spinners are it's accessories, with leather goods and shoes accounting for 66 per cent of the business. While his debut collection was entirely void of bags - fans will have to wait a little longer to see what the designer has in store - he choose the occasion to unveil a new Saint Laurent classic in the form of a YSL stiletto court shoe.

Much like the show, held in a construction site complete with a crane which held aloft a giant illuminated YSL logo, Vaccarello's vision for the house is still a work in progress. Only time will tell if his Saint Laurent will sell.

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