Anthony Vaccarello exits Saint Laurent as Kering confirms departure

Anthony Vaccarello has stepped down as creative director of Saint Laurent, owner Kering confirmed on Friday morning. The Belgian designer led the house's menswear and womenswear for a decade, from 2016, and his dramatic all-gold spring 2027 show at Paris Fashion Week now reads as his farewell.

The Paris house said Vaccarello played a key role in Saint Laurent's development, strengthening its identity and influence across fashion and culture, and that it would soon unveil new creative leadership. His successor has not yet been named.

Cédric Charbit, president and chief executive of Saint Laurent, warmly thanked Vaccarello, saying he took the house on a remarkable trajectory and elevated it in desirability and image. Saint Laurent has regained momentum under Charbit's revival plans, returning to growth in the first half of 2026.

Luca de Meo, Kering's chief executive since September 2025, expressed sincere gratitude for Vaccarello's contribution and his exacting standards, saying the designer strengthened one of France's greatest couture houses as it embarks on a new chapter.

Sales nearly tripled during Vaccarello's tenure, reaching €3.3 billion at their peak. Revenue then slipped to €2.6 billion in 2025, a 6 percent fall at comparable exchange rates, before growth returned in the first half of this year.

Why the decision came now

Kering said on an analyst call that the decision was driven by longer-term prospects for Saint Laurent and is unrelated to recent financial performance, according to a Barclays note. The focus of the next designer will be under-represented categories, including women's daywear, menswear, high-end leather goods and less penetrated regions such as China and Asia.

Because of the current skew to carry-over leather goods, Kering expects no disruption to the product pipeline from the creative transition. The group, which also owns Gucci, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Brioni and McQueen, no longer breaks out revenue by brand except for Gucci.

Vaccarello was hired in 2016 by then-chief executive Francesca Bellettini, now Gucci's CEO. He arrived having run his own label, launched in Paris in 2009, and after reviving Donatella Versace's Versus line. Born in Brussels to Italian parents, he studied sculpture at La Cambre after beginning in law.

He won the Hyères fashion festival prize in 2006, the ANDAM award in 2011, and worked at Fendi under Karl Lagerfeld specialising in fur. This year he took the International Designer of the Year title at the CFDA Awards, with the trophy handed over on 2 November in New York.

The Belgian designer also stands nominated for Designer of the Year at the Fashion Awards in London on 30 November. He had previously called Saint Laurent the holy grail of fashion houses, and has issued no personal statement on his departure or next move.

A cinematic, noirish decade

Vaccarello gradually introduced colour, volume, lightness and transparency to the monochromatic template set by predecessor Hedi Slimane, building a formula of ultra-long coats, broad-shouldered bombers, ruffled gowns, sheer mini dresses and sharp-toed stilettos rooted in Paris at night.

His womenswear shows ran in the open air at Place du Trocadéro, ending with the Eiffel Tower's glittering light display, while menswear travelled from a Malibu beach to the Moroccan desert. Bags rarely appeared on his catwalk, yet his vision fuelled sales of envelope handbags, loafers and bomber jackets.

In 2023 Vaccarello deepened the house's ties to cinema with Saint Laurent Productions, which produced the Oscar-winning Emilia Pérez by Jacques Audiard alongside films by Jim Jarmusch, David Cronenberg and Pedro Almodóvar. He also launched Saint Laurent Editions for books and fanzines.

Kering has been remaking itself under de Meo. At its Capital Markets Day in Florence last April, he told analysts the next chapter is how to reawaken and reinvigorate icons into products that outlive the fashion cycle. Saint Laurent aims to double sales to very important clients by 2030 and double its Asia business in the same window.

Speculation centres on Chemena Kamali, the German creative director of Chloé, who worked as Saint Laurent's women's ready-to-wear design director from 2016 to 2023. Her appointment would be something of a homecoming, though Kering has not confirmed any candidate.

The founder Yves Saint Laurent, who retired from couture in 2002 and died in 2008, is cited as the inventor of ready-to-wear through his 1966 Rive Gauche launch. His successors before Vaccarello included Alber Elbaz, Tom Ford, Stefano Pilati and Slimane, who led twice.

We have tracked Kering's reshaping closely: when Icicle named Sabato De Sarno creative director five months after a Kering investment, we covered it. We also reported on Burberry and Kering executives declaring the sector's reset years over, and on our complete map of luxury conglomerates.

Kering's statement left one thread hanging: the name of Vaccarello's successor. The company said it would announce new creative leadership soon, and his final collection, marching under three chandeliers in the shadow of a twinkling Eiffel Tower, already is in the archive as the handoff moment.

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Image: Saint Laurent