Anthony Vaccarello Exits Saint Laurent After a Decade

PARIS — Anthony Vaccarello is exiting Saint Laurent, owner Kering has confirmed. His dramatic September runway outing, which showcased a line-up of gilded looks before fading to black, was his grand finale at the storied Parisian fashion house.

During Vaccarello’s tenure, sales nearly tripled before sliding in recent years. His exit brings opportunity for creative renewal as well as significant risk for Kering as the group attempts a turnaround under new chief executive Luca De Meo.

Kering said it would announce new creative leadership at the brand “soon.”

Vaccarello took the helm of Saint Laurent, Kering’s second-biggest brand, in 2016, amping up the label’s glamour and sex appeal with bold eveningwear silhouettes paraded at cinematic runway shows overlooking the Eiffel Tower, an approach that made for one of the group’s most consistent propositions.

Early in his tenure, Vaccarello respected the monochromatic, bold-faced template put in place by predecessor Hedi Slimane before gradually introducing more colour, volume, lightness and transparency as he made the house his own.

As many luxury brands’ ready-to-wear collections merged with daywear and streetwear, collapsing the distance between the runway and everyday life, Vaccarello’s Saint Laurent stood out for its commitment to high fashion drama rooted in his sensual take on Paris at night.

He developed a clear formula for celebrating the brand’s archive: delving into a specific slice of founder Yves Saint Laurent’s legacy each season and plucking out a tight, legible palette of designs that could be refreshed for the present moment. Ultra-long coats, broad-shouldered bombers and parachute-like ruffled gowns were paired with skin-tight leggings and sheer mini dresses, statement jewellery and sharp-toed stilettos.

“It’s a house where you always have an image in your head,” Vaccarello told BoF’s Tim Blanks before his March runway show. “I like to play with the repetition of the same thing that you have in your mind.”

In 2023, Vaccarello deepened the brand’s long-running ties to cinema with the launch of Saint Laurent Productions. The subsidiary has produced award-winning films by directors including Jacques Audiard, Jim Jarmusch, Pedro Almodóvar and David Cronenberg.

Born in Brussels, Belgium to Italian parents, Vaccarello started out studying law before switching to sculpture at La Cambre. Following his graduation, he won the Hyères Festival fashion prize in 2006. He launched his fashion career with Karl Lagerfeld at Fendi, where he specialised in designing pieces in fur.

The designer established his own label in 2009 and won the Andam fashion prize two years later. In 2014, he was chosen to head Versace’s Versus line.

Business Impact

Vaccarello put his namesake label on hold when he started at Saint Laurent, where he was hired by then-CEO Francesca Bellettini (Gucci’s CEO since 2025).

Sales nearly tripled during Vaccarello’s tenure, reaching €3.3 billion at their peak. While a bag or a sneaker never appeared on Vaccarello’s runway, his sensual take on Parisienne style fuelled a multi-year surge in sales for the brand’s everyday products like envelope handbags, loafers and bomber jackets.

But from 2023, as demand from aspirational luxury buyers dried up across the sector, the business began to lose momentum. Saint Laurent has adapted by catering more clearly to wealthy shoppers willing to splash out on directional, high-end styles — filling its stores with more $5,000 silk trenchcoats, towering stilettos and chunky costume earrings. Revenue slipped to €2.6 billion in 2025 before returning to growth in the first half of this year.

Next Steps

Vaccarello’s succession offers Saint Laurent an opportunity to reassert its authority beyond occasionwear and eveningwear: while founder Yves left behind a legacy of high-flying fashion images and sumptuous couture, he was also a pioneer in making fashion for women’s everyday lives. Under revival plans led by current CEO Cédric Charbit, the brand aims to reinforce its daywear, menswear and high-end leather goods offer.

The challenge will be to inject novelty and variety without ceding hard-won brand territory as the go-to French house for people who still dress up to go out at night.

Additional reporting by Robert Williams