Chris Briney, Connor Storrie and François Arnaud walk into a Paris fashion show. Soon after, they’re followed by Charlie Hunnam and Rami Malek, who take their seats alongside Austin Butler and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. No, this is not the start of some Wattpad smut written by a lonely teenager, but the actual scene that unfolded at Saint Laurent’s AW26 catwalk last night (January 28).

For years now, creative director Anthony Vaccarello has chosen to hold his menswear show during Couture Week as a way of ensuring big-ticket guests are in town, and this season it paid off big time. While the YSL front row is always stacked, AW26 brought together all the men-of-the-moment (“It-boys”, “internet boyfriends”, etc.) for what can only be described as a Parasocial Relationship Convention. As well as the above, Luka Sabbat, Diego Calva, Jamie Bell, and Anora’s Mark Eydelshteyn were there, alongside Gabriette, Kate Moss, Suki Waterhouse and Nadia Lee Cohen.

For the collection at the Bourse de Commerce, Vaccarello sought inspiration in the morning after the night before, or, more specifically, “the move from unclothed to clothed, unbuttoned to buttoned, the ritual of transforming ourselves from our most naked selves to being dressed to re-enter the world.” The starting point for this line of thinking was James Baldwin’s 1956 novel Giovanni’s Room, and in particular the scene where David, a closeted American expat, vacates Giovanni’s small Paris bedroom for the last time during the early hours of the morning, and leaves behind “his desire, his yearnings, for all that lies ahead”.

The show began with a selection of shirtless suits, layered over bare skin as if David had hastily dressed upon his exit from Giovanni’s room. Faux fur was swaddled around models’ necks or carelessly flung over an arm, while scoop-neck knitwear was cut close to the body, for what Vaccarello described as a “lean, sinuous silhouette”. Bengal striped shirts with silk cravats spoke to the 1950s era that Baldwin’s novel is set in, as did the long camel trench coat that looked straight from the back of an inspector in a film noir. But, as always, this wouldn’t be an Antony Vaccarello show without a freaky little touch, which this season came in the form of latex tights protruding from the bottom of black and grey dress shorts.

Scroll through the gallery above to see all the looks from the show