“Serious matters push you to take other things less seriously, finding the balance while staying on the edge is a sophisticated aptitude,” says Saint Laurent creative director Anthony Vaccarello. That one sentiment of his sums up the Saint Laurent Women’s Winter 2021 collection and the aim it tries to achieve, of a lightness amidst brooding and serious backgrounds.

That thought could be a reflection of our current times, where fashion has taken a turn for the poppier, the prettier, the flashier, not only as a way to highlight the bold, but also to bring out the inherent joy. Set against cascading mountaintops and ravines, near waterfalls and collapsing ice caps, it’s an imposing picture that Saint Laurent paints for their show set to an operatic soundtrack. But as the very first model steps out in her matching wool jacket and skirt and silver bodysuit, you realize that it’s not all that serious.

In fact, the entire collection, titled “Where the Silver Wind Blows,” is a mix of these themes, bringing in eye-popping colors and shades, heavy metallics, chunky jewelry and accessories. Every item catches the eye and shows off its distinct qualities, standing out on their own amidst the ensemble. 

A large part of the collection features bodysuit-jacket-skirt combos, a lot of which seem pretty strange for a winter collection. The real seasonal appeal is in the layers and the your-outfit-your-choice nature of the line, where you have the complete ability to bring together multiple styles into one layered winter look. You could bring together a skirt with a fur hem, thigh high boots, a sixties tweed jacket, and a gold metallic bodysuit, paired with a lavish wreath of beads around your neck and dangling from your ears.

The individual details add to the collection — the frilled collars, the ruffled skirts, the intricate stoned patterns, the pointed-toe heels with metallic tips, the fur on the cuffs and hats. It’s all about the little things in this collection, which doesn’t particularly look like a showstopper on first look, but then starts building and building as you look closer and imagine the possibilities.

Check out Saint Laurent’s Women’s Winter 21 show below: