The high-octane short film by Nathalie Canguilhem captures Anthony Vaccarello’s Spring/Summer 2021 men’s collection amid the skylines of Paris, New York, and Beijing
Over the past six months fashion houses have imagined creative new ways to present their collections in lieu of traditional runway shows – some have debuted films, while others have released books and photo stories, and still others have created immersive virtual spaces online. Saint Laurent has adapted its approach for the age of social distancing too, this month debuting its Spring/Summer 2021 men’s collection with an ambitious project curated by Anthony Vaccarello entitled, No Matter How Long the Night Is.
The far-reaching project is described by the house as “a unique virtual and physical experience”, which celebrates the latest men’s collection through a variety of virtual and in-real-life avenues, including videos, an online augmented-reality experience, 3D lenticular imagery, street posters, hidden stickers, photo walls, flags, and even a music playlist. “A perpetual and simultaneous game of echoes creates an impossible dialogue between imagination and reality,” says Saint Laurent of the endeavour.
The centrepiece of the project is a high-octane short film conceived by Vaccarello and directed by Nathalie Canguilhem, which captures the new collection amid the iconoclastic skylines of three sprawling cities – Paris, New York, and Beijing. Opening with sweeping shots at dawn which see models perched atop impossibly tall structures, the film moves between the three cities in an action-packed series of panoramas in which a cast of Saint Laurent-clad youths gracefully free run across rooftops and smash through glass windows.
Soundtracked by a dramatic piano score by SebastiAn, the gravity-defying film concludes with a runway show next to the Eiffel Tower at nightfall – a gesture to the house’s traditional mode of revealing a collection – in which the Paris monument dazzles with a spectacular light show. In a time that has become defined by social restriction and isolation, Saint Laurent’s new film is a visual celebration of unbridled freedom.
Watch the film below.