Variations on Vaccarello

Anthony Vaccarello once again showed his street-chic collection at the wonderful Maison de la Radio in a sprawling corridor with splendid views of the Eiffel Tower. It doesn’t get more French moderne.

There was a passage of young models in Vaccarello’s specific brand of sexiness—tough, hard-edged, and raw—yet there was a newness to his overtly sexual overtures. Backstage he explained, “I wanted to do something looser, less constricted, and focus on the fabrics—whether sheer, leather, embroidery, and so on.”

When asked if the abstract embroidery in the vein of Lichtenstein was an homage Anja Rubik, Vaccarello’s model-muse and the women who helped put him on the map, he smiled slyly. “I wanted to do a print, which is new for me, maybe a face you don’t instantly recognize.”

Standouts from the collection included a cropped leather tunic and matching wrap skirt seen on Katlin Aas, plus those imminently covetable buckled sandals, and a new gown in leather, sliced and diced on either side to reveal a pair of enviable gams (thank you, Lexi Boling!), paired with a simple t-shirt.

Of the metal rings that tied his slinky silk jersey frocks together, Vaccarello shared, “It’s not conceptual. There’s always [metalwork] in my collections, so it’s more instinctive than conceptual. I just thought to fasten the clothes with rings.” No need for accessories.

For more from Paris Fashion Week SS 2016, click here