Hedi Slimane’s sensational Saint Laurent collection today isn’t likely to settle the rumor mill, which alternately insists he’s leaving for Dior (replaced by Anthony Vaccarello) and staying put at the house he’s reinvigorated so thoroughly. That’s because the show proved his top-level couture prowess, a case for both scenarios.

The first collection held in Saint Laurent’s new couture house — mansion, really — in Saint-Germain des Prés, the show oozed couture. First, there was no music — startling for an avowed rock fan like Slimane (that’s what the concert-like show at the Palladium last month was for). Rather, as the show transpired, numbers were announced by the same woman who called the house’s couture shows between 1977 and 2002, the year Saint Laurent retired.

Essentially, Slimane glamorized the 80s, both its chic and cheese, with seriously enormous shoulders, mini-skirts (tight and poufy), wide belts, pumps. Straight out of a Robert Palmer video, complete with slicked back hair, his leggy models traversed the various salons of the mansion bedecked in all manner of high-sheen cocktail attire, some sporting the new and highly covetable Love bag. In a bold palette of pink, red, silver, gold, and black, they were the very embodiment of Nagel girls.