Berlin’s contemporary art museum Neue Nationalgalerie – defined by its glass-and-steel pavilion that hovers above the vast below-ground space where most of the art is held – was one of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s final projects, first opened in 1968. Yesterday evening (12 June 2023), in a continuing world tour of his menswear collections for the house, Anthony Vaccarello of Saint Laurent took over the gallery to host his Spring/Summer 2024 men’s collection (previous shows have taken place in Morocco and Los Angeles, as well as Paris last season).
The clarity of its design – since renovated by David Chipperfield Architects in a six-year process that culminated in 2021 – reflects Vaccarello’s ongoing desire to distill and perfect his own menswear codes. At his previous menswear show, the designer noted that the O-shaped set in the newly opened Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection gallery in Paris was ‘a symbol of perfection and purity of execution... a recurring, pertinent thread at Saint Laurent.’ At the time, he described the collection as one of ‘ultra-focus’, a continuing exploration of silhouette; namely, the juxtaposition of sharply drawn tailoring and something more louche and diaphanous, which he accounted to the growing synergy between his mens- and womenswear collections.
