Saint Laurent Puts a Parisian Spin on Festival Style for Spring 2020

Short shorts are BACK, baby!

A look from the Saint Laurent Spring 2020 collection. Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Just when you thought you were free from the clutches of “festival style” — that somewhat indefinable look once personified by the likes of Kate Moss in her wellies at Glastonbury — Anthony Vaccarello is here to bring it all back again with his Spring 2020 Saint Laurent collection. Short shorts are back, baby, and shorter than ever.

Whether charcoal gray, pinstriped-navy or black-rinsed denim, the short-short is the hero piece of the season, meant to be paired with everything from a menswear-inspired vest to velvet band jackets. If you’re in the market for something a bit longer, though, there were also denim Bermuda shorts. And Vaccarello’s spin on the cowboy boot is going to require a VIP pass and a golf cart escort, thanks to a stacked, vertiginous heel. Feeling more boho? Try Saint Laurent’s gold-laced prairie dresses and pussy-bow blouses.

Of course, there was more to the collection than shorts. Saint Laurent is a luxury brand, and man cannot survive on cutoffs alone, so the saying goes. There was plenty here for women with jobs that don’t involve the festival circuit: think sharply-cut blazers and ruffled button downs that will be perfect for the office when actually, you know, buttoned. The velvet duster coats and one-shouldered dresses were downright lustworthy. The lamé pieces and skintight stirrup pants may prove more difficult, but the Saint Laurent woman has never shied away from a challenge.

And it wouldn’t be a Saint Laurent show without an evening section, this season rendered all in sparkling black. Stella Tennant opened this suite of looks in a sexy Le Smoking suit, followed by tuxedo dresses, louche tanks and sleek pants, belted jumpsuits, sheer blouses with silky detailing and denim cutoffs, all with an element of black sequins. This stuff will sell — and not just because Naomi Campbell looked killer in her closing walk.

See every look from Saint Laurent’s Spring 2020 collection in the gallery below.