“A garment in which you feel good is a passport to happiness,” the great Yves Saint Laurent used to say. Born in Oran, Algeria, at a time when it was a French colony, the great designer who would have turned 88 this August found in Morocco, starting in the late sixties, his ideal refuge with his partner, Pierre Bergé. After a while they bought the villa Dar Es Saada there, which they referred to as the house of happiness and serenity.
Thus, the memories of the Algerian war of independence, in which YSL was called up and, after only twenty days, ended up admitted to a military psychiatric hospital needing electroshocks and sedatives, were left behind, and North Africa was for him the inspiration for iconic garments in the women’s wardrobe, such as the caftan or the safari jacket, which he imbued with the same sensuality and provocation as his iconic tuxedo.
Inspired by the Afrikakorps, the German troops who fought on the North African front during the Second World War, he created his first safari jacket in 1967: a jacket in beige gabardine fabric, with a large V-shaped neckline running through an adjustable leather drawstring and four large pockets.
The culmination: a bronze belt to mark the waist and give the garment that infallible sexy touch. Thanks to the editorial of the photographer Franco Rubartelli with the top model Veruschka wearing this jacket with a hat and a shotgun, the new creation of the great couturier quickly became a bestseller.
Today, more than 50 years later, the garment is still in vogue, especially after the collection show by Anthony Vaccarello, the current creative director of Saint Laurent, for this spring/summer, in which he clearly recovers the safari jacket and gives it new of that chic freshness that it already had in its time.
“I didn’t want to do almost anything. I see so many convoluted things, so many embroideries, so many decorative elements, that I wanted to eliminate everything, not do more than what was necessary. Sweep away everything. “Start a new chapter for the brand with an aesthetic that fits the current trend of silent luxury,” she told Vogue magazine after the show.
Thus, this season the safari jacket looks refined and with a markedly more comfortable style, without losing even an iota of glamour. There are no zigzag laces, but there are leather belts and flap pockets. The collection is accompanied by long-sleeved cotton jumpsuits, pencil skirts with large pockets, cargo pants and some muslin dresses. To give it that allure of seduction, Vaccarello relies on sculptural earrings, high-heeled shoes, gloves and razor-style sunglasses. Ultrasimple and ultrachic.
The color palette follows the same desert inspiration: beige, yellow, mustard, maroon… “The military garments in Europe are dark green and have this camouflage print because here, as in Latin America, there is a lot of vegetation, but if we think about those desert areas that inspired Yves Saint Laurent, there are hardly any plants and what predominates is sand, rocks, stones… Those colors of dusk in the desert that were Saint Laurent’s dream,” explains Jaume Vidiella, director of the School of Arts and Techniques of Fashion (EATM) in Barcelona.
The safari jacket is the cover letter of a season in which the safari look, with its colors, textures and loose and comfortable patterns, has taken over the catwalk and the street, mainly in women’s proposals, but also in men’s ones. We see it in our country with the monkeys of Lola Casademunt and Cus. The men’s shirts of the Llamazares and Delgado tandem deserve special mention.
“The safari jacket is a garment that is always present in our collections because it combines the city with adventure. For this season we reflect on how living in a capital or a small rural town is quite an adventure. You can wear this jacket in spring and summer, at night, on the beach, on a sailboat or running to a meeting. We are passionate about the romanticism that is associated with safaris in the African savannah, the Himalayas, hiking in the Andes…”, explains Fabricio Pérez de Delgado.
“It is a utilitarian and unisex garment, but also synonymous with glamour. That is why we have used fabrics such as toile de Jouy and we wanted to give it some touches of peach skin touch,” adds Jaime Martínez Llamazares.
We cannot forget Loewe, who, under the direction of the British J.W. Anderson, opts for skin in sleeveless tops. Looks that find the ideal accessories in the velvety friulane of Cayumas and in the sandals and bags of Hereu.
From Paris come blouses with maxi front pockets from Yerse and Hermès, and jackets of different types from Pomandère and Soeur; and from Milan the loose outfits from Loro Piana and Forte Forte.
“This season we see again crochet, patchwork and mesh that reveals the body in great proposals such as those of Chanel and Dior, a most seductive trend that has conquered the Z but also other generations,” notes the stylist for Elle in Italy Maria Deiana.
This is the case of the Portuguese brand Pe de Chumbo, by designer Alexandra Oliveira, whose production process is completely artisanal and in many cases uses recycled fibers. The inspiration for your textures? “The branches and plants of both leafy and arid areas. This season I have used gold a lot, although in a nuanced way, because a large part of my clients come from Arab countries,” explains Oliveira. Yves Saint Laurent already said it towards the end of his career: “I am no longer concerned with sensations and innovation, but with the perfection of my style.”
