STYLE Edit: Saint Laurent’s Spring Summer 2021 Digital Project juxtaposes virtual and offline worlds – from augmented reality to old school street posters

In the world of fashion, there’s a plethora of inspirations, mindsets and methods that creatives use when conceiving their seasonal collections – helping designers capture the mood they want to present, and better communicate their vision to their clientele and the public at large. These messages are then amplified by elaborate launches with exciting lighting design and sprinkled with celebrities, or glossy magazine spreads in industry bibles.

We are only infrequently given a taste of the motivation and conception that coalesces behind a collection of couture pieces. Some designers look to bridge that gap by presenting not just their finished concepts, but the process as a whole, showing the range of devices that they have used in the pursuit of their art, cataloguing their passionate journey of creativity and fashion.

Now a fresh collection by Saint Laurent creative director Anthony Vaccarello, the Saint Laurent Spring Summer 2021 Digital Project, unveils a unique virtual and physical showcasing of this experience.

Bringing together videos, augmented reality, 3D lenticular imagery, a music playlist, street posters, hidden stickers, photo walls, flags and more, these disparate elements all connect places around the world, digitally and physically.

The pieces are impossibly cool, and each tells a story of the art behind it – rejecting the staleness that has become common place in so many campaigns, and embracing the eclectic nature of fashion influence and evocation.

The inspiration behind the materials, forms and spectrum of colours is ultimately the catalyst. But Vaccarello sets an impressively high bar for the curation of media in his new project, true to the style in which he has moved the brand forward since his appointment as creative director in 2016.