The Designer Departs After Transforming Saint Laurent Into a €3.3 Billion Business, as Kering Prepares to Name New Creative Leadership
Anthony Vaccarello is leaving Saint Laurent after a decade as Creative Director, bringing to a close one of the most commercially successful and visually consistent chapters in the French fashion house’s recent history.
Parent company Kering has confirmed his departure and said new creative leadership will be announced soon. Vaccarello’s Spring 2027 collection, presented in Paris in September, now stands as his final show for the house.
The departure comes at a pivotal moment for Saint Laurent and Kering. Under Chief Executive Officer Luca de Meo, the luxury group is working to restore growth across its portfolio, while Saint Laurent, its second-largest brand, is pursuing a broader repositioning under Chief Executive Officer Cédric Charbit.
Appointed in 2016, Vaccarello succeeded Hedi Slimane, inheriting a house that had already undergone a significant transformation. Slimane had established a sharp, youthful aesthetic and a powerful commercial identity. Vaccarello initially worked within that framework before gradually developing a more sensual and sophisticated expression of the Saint Laurent woman.
His vision was unmistakable. Broad shoulders, elongated silhouettes, sheer fabrics, sculptural eveningwear and towering heels became recurring signatures, presented through cinematic runway productions that frequently used the Eiffel Tower as a backdrop.
Rather than reinventing the house each season, Vaccarello developed a disciplined approach to its archives, revisiting specific periods of Yves Saint Laurent’s work and translating them into a contemporary wardrobe. His collections increasingly embraced the glamour of the 1970s and 1980s, with dramatic volumes, fluid fabrics and a confident approach to sexuality.
That consistency became one of Saint Laurent’s greatest commercial strengths.
During Vaccarello’s tenure, annual revenue nearly tripled, reaching a peak of approximately €3.3 billion. His runway collections helped establish an aspirational image that extended across the house’s leather goods, footwear and ready-to-wear businesses, even as handbags and other major commercial categories rarely appeared on his runway.
The momentum began to weaken in 2023 as luxury spending slowed, particularly among aspirational consumers. Saint Laurent’s revenue declined to approximately €2.6 billion in 2025 before returning to growth in the first half of 2026.
The changing market has prompted a reassessment of the house’s product strategy. Under Charbit, Saint Laurent has been working to strengthen its daywear, menswear and high-end leather goods offerings while increasing its appeal to wealthier clients.
Vaccarello also expanded Saint Laurent’s cultural presence beyond fashion. In 2023, he launched Saint Laurent Productions, establishing the house as an active participant in filmmaking. The initiative has supported projects by directors including Pedro Almodóvar, David Cronenberg, Jacques Audiard and Jim Jarmusch, strengthening the brand’s longstanding relationship with cinema.
Born in Brussels to Italian parents, Vaccarello studied at La Cambre before winning the fashion prize at the Hyères Festival in 2006. He began his professional career at Fendi, working under Karl Lagerfeld, before establishing his namesake label in 2009.
He received the ANDAM Fashion Award in 2011 and was appointed Creative Director of Versus Versace in 2014. Two years later, he joined Saint Laurent, putting his independent label on hold to concentrate on the house.
His departure presents Kering with a consequential creative decision.
Saint Laurent has maintained an unusually recognizable identity through a period when many luxury houses have repeatedly changed direction. Vaccarello’s commitment to glamour, precision and an uncompromising vision of Parisian sensuality helped distinguish the brand in an increasingly crowded luxury market.
His successor will inherit a powerful aesthetic foundation alongside the commercial challenge of expanding the house’s appeal beyond the categories and silhouettes that defined the past decade.
For Vaccarello, the September show offered a fitting conclusion. Its gilded silhouettes, theatrical presentation and eventual descent into darkness captured the visual language he had spent ten years refining.
What comes next for the designer has not been announced.
For Saint Laurent, the next chapter will require finding a new creative voice capable of building on a decade of extraordinary brand recognition while opening the house to a changing luxury market.