Saint Laurent debuted its Men’s Spring/Summer 2022 collection with a show Wednesday, complete with an unveiling that—per a press release—occured “within an artwork” by Doug Aitken.
In June, Saint Lauren confirmed that creative director Anthony Vaccarello had commissioned Aitken for a large-scale site-specific installation which the French fashion house would offer to Venice and the public. The artwork itself, which served as the site of the Spring/Summer 2022 show on Wednesday, will remain accessible to the public through July 30.
Up top, watch the full broadcast of Saint Laurent’s Men’s Spring/Summer 2022 show.
“Saint Laurent’s cult iconography always combined creative disciplines across art and fashion,” Vaccarello said Wednesday. “Through those collaborations I want to merge different fields’ artistic visions in a unique artwork.”
Here’s more on Aitken’s piece, straight from the Saint Laurent team:
“Located on the island of Isola Della Certosa, Green Lens is a living experiential artwork and also a destination, a place to explore, to inspire and to be inspired. It will evoke the future through its crystalline reflective interior which reveals a kaleidoscopic view and dense botanic environment. It will be a freestanding artwork, and from the exterior, it will create a combination of reflections mixed with clouds, mist and wild green vegetation evoking a mysterious presence. Inside the sculpture there will be an enormous living kaleidoscope-like space that reflects the landscape, sky and the shifting surroundings. This installation turns the landscape into a living abstraction.”
Late last month, Saint Laurent unveiled a 2021 denim collection that took inspiration from the 1970s via distressed jackets and blazers. The collection was teased months earlier with a video featuring Hailey Bieber, Anok Yai, Romeo Beckham, Sonny Hall, Megan Miles, and more.
Doug Aitken, meanwhile, made headlines earlier this year for his multiscreen film installation collaboration with L.A. Dance Project. The immersive film experience deals with the pandemic, albeit in an abstract and uniquely personal way.
“2020, and from what we’ve seen of 2021—it’s kind of a new era that we’re living in,” Aitken told Deborah Vankin for the Los Angeles Times in February. “And perhaps this work is trying to share [that idea] with people, to create a bridge to help us navigate that, help us understand where we are and where we’re potentially going.”
