With the Saint Laurent 2019 Pre-Fall collection, Anthony Vaccarello created an androgynous collection with trademark touches to eveningwear.

“It’s a Rive Gauche way of seeing clothes,” he said of this Saint Pre-Fall one Parisian afternoon a day or so after his show this past February. “It’s about a vestiaire, rather than creating a new silhouette. I like fantasy, but I also like realness. This is more the idea of the perfect jacket, the perfect shirt, the perfect skirt, the perfect jeans.”

Vaccarello featured shrunken blazers, some riffing on Le Smoking, cut high and tight on the armholes. Lean rock​ ​’n’​ ​roller-ish pants finishing at a length that just grazes the ankles. Monochromatic marinière stripes delineating everything from a house-classic matelot sweater to a fur chubby, a skinny cable knit pullover to the fabulously ostentatious and oversize furry scarves that came wrapped around the necks. The women’s shoes were as flat as the men’s, the result, Vaccarello said, of his reacting to the towering kitschy platforms he did for Spring 2019.

His pre-collections have been the result of challenging himself such as the neon blacklight closing moments of his Fall 2019 finale started with this Pre-Fall collection’s Day-Glo pumps. It’s why he has chosen to hold off presenting any of his pre-collections online until now, not unreasonably thinking he didn’t want to steal the shows’ thunder.

Saint Laurent is as much about attitude as it is spectacle.