The video presentation for Saint Laurent's summer 2021 collection by Anthony Vaccarello begins with the letters "YSL" stamped on to a towering sand dune. Models then appear over the crest of the dune, transforming a stunning stretch of Moroccan desert into a makeshift (and ever-shifting) runway.
Under a sky lightly dusted with clouds, models smoothly navigated this most unstable of surfaces, despite their high heels, showcasing a collection that, unusually for Vaccarello, was centred around comfort.
A thick jersey material, uncovered in the Saint Laurent archive and dating back to the late 1960s, which the brand points out were “uncertain times, just like today”, set the tone. Clothes outlined the body without constricting it, whether in the form of tunics and trousers, a long jacket with tidy pockets, a silk blouse worn with rider shorts or structured-looking jumpsuits.
Towards the end of the presentation, the mood shifts as the dune is engulfed in darkness, lit only by a line of fire.
“I wanted to focus on the essence of things. I think it’s a sign of the times. But I didn’t want anything bleak or heavy. The desert, to me, symbolises that yearning for serenity, open space, a slower rhythm. The clothes are also softer, the spirit of the collection is more gentle, stripped back,” Vaccarello explained.
The label has a longstanding connection to Morocco. Its founder, the famed Yves Saint Laurent, first visited Marrakech in 1966 with his partner Pierre Bergé, and they quickly became captivated by the city. Saint Laurent would go on to write of the city’s “benevolent pink magic”.
Saint Laurent came here twice a year to design his haute couture collections. On June 1 and December 1, he would travel to Marrakech for two weeks at a time, and it is here that he found the space, clarity and inspiration to create.
The city’s influence could be seen in the clothes he created, as the designer drew from local fashions, crafts and colours, and by the billowing silhouettes of the jalabiya and the burnous cape. It is often said that it was here that he “discovered colour”.
“In Morocco, I realised that the range of colours I use was that of the zelliges, zouacs, djellabas and caftans. The boldness seen since then in my work, I owe to this country, to its forceful harmonies, to its audacious combinations, to the fervour of its creativity. This culture became mine, but I wasn’t satisfied with just absorbing it; I took, transformed and adapted it,” he said.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
The biog
Hometown: Cairo
Age: 37
Favourite TV series: The Handmaid’s Tale, Black Mirror
Favourite anime series: Death Note, One Piece and Hellsing
Favourite book: Designing Brand Identity, Fifth Edition
Royal Birkdale Golf Course
Location: Southport, Merseyside, England
Established: 1889
Type: Private
Total holes: 18
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Indoor Cricket World Cup - Sept 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
Match info
Uefa Nations League A Group 4
England 2 (Lingard 78', Kane 85')
Croatia 1 (Kramaric 57')
Man of the match: Harry Kane (England)
Squad for first two ODIs
Kohli (c), Rohit, Dhawan, Rayudu, Pandey, Dhoni (wk), Pant, Jadeja, Chahal, Kuldeep, Khaleel, Shami, Thakur, Rahul.
What is graphene?
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
At the time, many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable. But examined under a microscope, the material remained stable, and when tested was found to have incredible properties.
It is many times times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent. The world's first 2D material, it is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.
But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties.
More from our neighbourhood series:
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Awar Qalb
Director: Jamal Salem
Starring: Abdulla Zaid, Joma Ali, Neven Madi and Khadija Sleiman
Two stars