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Anthony Vaccarello is leaving Saint Laurent after a decade serving as its creative director, the house’s parent company, Kering, confirmed on Friday. The maison has yet to name a successor, but Kering expects to announce new leadership soon. The news closes a chapter that had made Vaccarello’s precise, sensual vision a defining part of Parisian fashion.
Last week, on September 29, he presented his Spring 2027 collection beneath the Eiffel Tower, under three towering candlelit chandeliers. The show moved through 49 looks in shades of gold before closing with black, revisiting house signatures including safari jackets, trenches, pencil skirts, brocade, and evening dresses. The mood felt unusually personal, with the veteran designer declining the usual interviews. At the time, the staging fueled talk and rumors of his departure, and today, these speculations became news.
Vaccarello was appointed in April 2016, succeeding Heidi Slimane just days after his departure. Before joining Saint Laurent, the Belgian designer had founded his own label in 2009 and served as the creative director behind Versus Versace. He trained at Brussels’ La Cambre, where his background in art and sculpture helped inform his instinct for cut and construction.
He inherited a house already moving quickly, but had to establish a language distinct from Slimane’s rock-inflected reign. Over the next decade, Vaccarello did so with sharp shoulders, lean tailoringTailoringThe craft of cutting, fitting, and altering clothes to suit an individual's body, from adjusting trouser hems to creating an entire suit. Good tailoring transforms how clothes look and feel,Go to Tailoring Glossary, black leather, elongated silhouettes, and a carefully calibrated kind of glamour. His runway productions, often framed by the Eiffel Tower, reasserted Saint Laurent’s Parisian identity while pushing the founder’s codes into modern, sometimes provocative territory.
He also extended the house’s reach into film with Saint Laurent Productions, launched in 2023, with backed projects including Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez and Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope, giving the house a place in cinema’s cultural conversation as well as on the runway.
The commercial results were considerable, as Saint Laurent’s revenue more than tripled to €3.3 billion in 2022 under Vaccarello, according to Vogue. But the wider luxury slowdown later took its toll, with revenues falling 9 percent in 2024 and 6 percent in 2025, according to Kering. His departure comes as the group undertakes a broader overhaul. Whoever succeeds Vaccarello will inherit a house with a sharply defined visual identity and the challenge of keeping it strong.
Frequently Asked Questions
Anthony Vaccarello served as Saint Laurent’s creative director for 10 years, from 2016 to 2026.
His Spring 2027 collection, presented beneath the Eiffel Tower on September 29, 2026, was his final collection for the house.
Saint Laurent has yet to announce Vaccarello’s successor
Gabriel Yap
Gab is GQ Philippines’ Associate Features Editor, where he writes about the people, places, and ideas shaping contemporary culture. When he isn’t at events or chasing a story, you’ll likely find him somewhere far from the city, drawn to rugged and remote terrain as a mountaineer and to community-driven journalism. Before GQ, he made his way through Vogue Philippines in various roles, starting as a copywriter before becoming Vogue Man’s Fashion Writer, an occasional stylist, and a culture writer.
