SAINT LAURENT – Spring/Summer 2016 | FASHION INSIDER MAGAZINE

“…replete with pieces imprisoned between the uninteresting and the OFFENSIVELY VULGAR and lacks all traces of true elegance.”

October 21, 2015

By Marcellous L. Jones

Photos Courtesy of Saint Laurent

Paris, France – The fashion journalism business has become an elitist game in which honest reporting is a near-extinct commodity when it comes to rich fashion houses that advertise. The way it works is simple. A small fashion house finds itself receiving far more honest, but brutal reviews because they have limited to no advertisement budgets. However a rich fashion house with a substantial advertising budget would rarely if ever find itself the subject of a scathing review. And that is the case no matter how they may objectively find a collection to be.

Petty “fashion friendships” and advertisement don’t pay the bills here. And that brings this writer to the new Saint Laurent collection for Spring/Summer 2016.

Upon seeing it, this writer was literally in shock mode. I found myself rummaging through the collection to find its redeeming qualities, which are far in between.

From the beginning artistic director Hedi Slimane seems to try to capitalize on Kenzo’s success with revamping its line to suit the tastes of a much younger and far more urban clientel with a cosmopolitan edge. Though the effort is to be applauded, the result deserves no such acclaim. Instead we find a varied selection of regular, “just put it on with any old thing pieces”, mixed and done in fabrics with brilliant sheen finishings. However, the overall end result leaves one gasping for air and asking, “Why? Really why?“

The collection has its rare saving graces. Among them are the smoking pantsuit, the lone, bulky cashmere top and the three or four black vamp-looking gowns. Beyond that the Spring/Summer 2016 is an epic aesthetic failure. It lacks all traces of true elegance. Why? It is really simple. The collection is replete with pieces imprisoned between the uninteresting and the OFFENSIVELY VULGAR.