Should you ever need a quick musical pick me up, I can highly recommend watching the divine Françoise Hardy perform her fabbo 1966 song Je changerais d’avis on YouTube. It’s totally her, a wonderfully rousing symphonic number. And then there’s the performance itself, all shiny Pop Art jackets and that blunt-banged, straight-shanked hair of hers blowing (via wind machine) whenever the chorus kicks in. Back in 1966, pop belonged to the US and the UK, but along came Hardy, putting French music—and more specifically, French women vocalists—on the map, not to mention that iconically lanky, androgynous look of hers which lives on to this day.
Yet 1966 is also notable for another French phenomenon: the launch by Yves Saint Laurent of his Rive Gauche ready-to-wear label. (The house had been strictly haute couture up till that point.) It changed everything; fashion would no longer be driven by the hauteur of the Parisian couture salon, but the pulsating energy of the street, right across the world. It’s those two moments that Anthony Vaccarello brings into a coolly chic conversation with this collection, mining the first Rive Gauche offerings for their contemporary relevance (the ease, the modernity, the lack of fuss, and, oh, the checks) with Françoise Hardy’s eternally cool appeal, a kind of casual, boyish, shrug of the shoulders style that could make the dressed-up and the dressed-down coexist in perfect harmony.
For Vaccarello, it comes down to a few key ideas, looks, and pieces. There are the big, bold, and—here’s a word they wouldn’t have used back in 1966—badass leather jackets, with everything from Kurt Cobain-esque tartan shirting to Catherine Deneuve (circa the 1980s) gleaming croc-effect pencil skirts. Another tailoring option: vintage-y blousons, atop inverted pleat checked skirts, the uber-bourgeois vibe amped up with the substantial, statement-y gilt bangles and earrings.
Amongst the seriously good jackets on offer, Vaccarello also found the time to turn out a masculin/feminin 1970s blazer, again in one of his ubiquitous checks (from plaid to Prince of Wales). It would look absolutely terrific with the more quotidian pairing of jeans, but here he plays it off against dramatic, evening-y floor length ruffled skirts that are scissored away face on to be much shorter: party at the front, ballgown at the back. To underscore the idea of easiness, instead of frou-frou blouses, those trailing, couture-like skirts were also partnered with tees and sweaters.
That’s how Vaccarello has transported his Saint Laurent back to that pivotal year of 1966, while also being entirely cognizant that nearly 60 years have passed. There’s a tacit acknowledgement that women’s lives are in a very different place (we certainly all hope) from where they were back then, and really, obviously, so is fashion. Today it’s about designing clothes that can walk the line between reality and fantasy, and the responsibility that comes with that, especially at a house laden with history.
Even when Vaccarello goes into a more boudoir vibe with his lingerie inspired dresses, they’re slipped under oversized coats and worn with vertiginous leather boots. The message remains the same however: We still need clothes we can dream about, now maybe more than ever, but fashion is really something to be loved, worn, and lived in. Just don’t, please, overthink it.
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