What Vaccarello does instead is create fashion that truly resonates and touches experiences. In July, in the middle of the Agafay Desert, a dusty hour’s drive outside of Marrakech, he staged his men’s show for Spring 2023. Among those in attendance were talented people you wouldn’t call “celebrities” like Steve Lacy and Dominique Vieque, as well as dozens of other pretty creatures in gauze blouses. in the form of an arc. Flowy pants and at least one dark cape made whoever wore it look like a Jedi Master. As the sun set, a group of slender models appeared through the eerie mist. The former wore a shirtless off-shoulder tuxedo and simple black sandals. Another wore a white silk shirt with a stand-up collar and long black windswept trousers. Another wore a large faux-fur duster coat, which she swung over the tops of shiny black stilettos.

Men’s fashion is going through a full-blown identity crisis—in the shifting terrain of masculinity and gender expression, and the Category 5 hurricane of trends circulating on social media, many designers seem confused about what their clients want, or even who they are. In Marrakech, Vaccarello responded with intense urgency and clarity of vision. He offered clothes that clearly spoke of an ambitious life of hedonism and sensuality. Clothing for men who want to feel beautiful. It was a defining moment in validating his men’s line.

Obviously, the audience picked up on what Vaccarello said. Like a portal from another world to Es Devlin’s landscape-interspersed sculpture, I descended back into a dark pond in the center of the runway and the models disappeared into the night, many in the audience weeping silently down their blouses. Anthony Vaccarello later told me: “For me, it’s very important to cry on the show.” “I love when there is emotion. It’s so important to tell a story. And then at the end, if you cry, it means you understand where I want to go, and I love that.”

Vaccarello was not destined to emerge as a menswear powerhouse. When he arrived at Saint Laurent, he had never designed a piece of men’s clothing, and his approach was initially cautious. “When I started doing men, it was more about what I was wearing at the time. So it was kind of selfish, I have to say. It’s probably very real,” he says. One designer he wore frequently at the time was Hedi Slimane, his predecessor at Saint Laurent. Solomon was a tough act to follow, especially for someone who was new to menswear. “I felt pressure starting from the men, because he used to do men, and he was doing really good men,” says Vaccarello, who wears, as he does almost every day, a black leather aviator jacket designed by Slimane to Saint Laurent. “That’s why I took the time to find my language.” He didn’t do his first solo men’s show until 2018, and even then the clothes reflected the vibe — I think the usual Viper Room with a bad attitude — that Solomon had established. Vaccarello’s tall, confident women’s clothing was very well received, and his men’s clothing was seen as an afterthought.