Almost every summer, the Saint Laurent house reinterprets its codes, including the safari jacket. But his spring-summer 2024 collection made the proposal even broader workwear than usual, full of pockets reminiscent of cargo pants. A utility version that particularly resonates today and that many more accessible brands have already rushed to revisit. So much so that this promises to be a strong trend for this spring-summer 2024.
How to wear the Saharan fashion trend for this spring-summer 2024?
Why is the safari jacket the trendy jacket of the moment?
During the Saint Laurent spring-summer 2024 show (in September 2023), the voice of Catherine Deneuve described each step, the first of which is always the most important, as a note of intention for the collection: “ Number 1: safari dress, in dune cotton gabardine. » The tone is decisive: the safari jacket is the highlight of the collection. Nothing surprising at Saint Laurent, given the history of the house. But while Dune 2 with Zendaya a box office success since its release on February 28, 2024, the desert spirit of this jacket makes a different impression.
Where to find the trendy jacket of the moment, the safari jacket, at a low price?
Anthony Vaccarello, artistic director of Saint Laurent (since 2016) proposes a more minimalist and utilitarian version, focusing on workwear and quiet luxury trends, of the safari jacket. Enough to inspire more accessible brands to vary it as they wish, and fashionistas to adopt it in shades of beige, orange, brown and even sandy khaki.
In practice we can therefore use an overshirt workwear (characterised by the very practical chest pockets) in suede or cotton, belt-mounted or not. Or a more basic safari jacket, i.e. with lacing along the torso, to be worn more or less untied depending on the cold of the moment.
Since few people can and are willing to spend €2,390 on a Saint Laurent safari jacket, know that there are nice models at Sézane. Simply fasten the Will or Monique jacket models to give them a safari spirit. Same belt from Balzac on the model of the Marais jacket. Or even cheaper is the Alma model by Promod which fastens very well also to give a safari spirit to the look.
This type of safari jacket or belted overshirt is very easy to find on second hand sites like Vinted, Vestiaire Collective or even Depop.
Where did the safari jacket, popularized by Saint Laurent from the 1960s to today, come from?
If the designer Yves Saint Laurent left such an important mark in the history of fashion, it is in particular for having proposed dressing women in clothes with masculine power, including the tuxedo certainly, but also the safari jacket, terribly. In addition to the pea coat, coming from the sailors’ wardrobe, since his very first collection under his name in 1962, the great couturier has launched the safari jacket since 1967 by incorporating it into a haute couture show.
This one is from 1941 (a dark decade from which scandal-loving Saint Laurent took great inspiration), created to dress the Deutsches Afrikakorps. These are German panzer military units in the deserts of Libya and western Egypt, then in Tunisia, during World War II. From its military origins, the safari jacket begins to be worn by more and more Western men in Africa (atmosphere: safari among settlers). Because its cotton gabardine makes it suitable for the heat of the continent.
Mr. Yves Saint Laurent then diverts it from the masculine wardrobe of Western men in Africa to dress the women of the Old Continent. He even suggests wearing it next to the skin, so that his lacing serves as a sensual neckline. After a scandalous first appearance in a couture show, he simplified it further and successfully offered it for his 1969 Saint Laurent Rive Gauche ready-to-wear collection. And the rest is part of fashion history.
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Source: Madmoizelle
Mary Crossley is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. She is a seasoned journalist who is dedicated to delivering the latest news to her readers. With a keen sense of what’s important, Mary covers a wide range of topics, from politics to lifestyle and everything in between.
