Saint Laurent blooms with oversized drama and ’80s power at Paris show

PARIS – At Saint Laurent, Anthony Vaccarello dialed up the drama Monday night at Paris Fashion Week with a set of gigantic white flowers that loomed like a cinematic backdrop. If the blooms hinted at delicacy, the clothes told another story: big, bold, and unafraid of excess.

Floor-sweeping gowns rippled with frills, evoking 1970s archival pieces and petals unfurling at twilight. They weren’t garments so much as visual arguments — “beauty as plural,” the house notes declared — gowns that embodied Vaccarello’s belief that esthetics are a language.

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The designer’s penchant for oversize, a through-line of his tenure, reached new heights. Giant crisp bow collars, sharp enough to cut the air, swung the silhouettes firmly into the early ’80s, echoing the exaggerated power