Anthony Vaccarello has left Saint Laurent after ten years in charge of its womenswear and menswear. The house confirmed his departure on the morning of 9 October, having earlier denied the rumours, and said he had played a key role in its development. His Spring/Summer 2027 show, staged during Paris Fashion Week earlier in the month, was his final collection for the label.
The show itself gave insiders the hint they had been waiting for. After taking his bow, Vaccarello handed a set of keys to his son, Luca, a gesture that many in the room read as a farewell. The collection, presented beneath three large chandeliers close to the Eiffel Tower, revisited Yves Saint Laurent signatures such as the trench coat, the safari jacket, brocade tailoring and ruffled blouses, all rendered in shades of gold.
Before joining Saint Laurent, Vaccarello ran his own label and designed for Versus Versace. At the Paris house he became known for repeating a sharp, power-shouldered silhouette until it defined the brand, and for womenswear shows held outdoors at the Place du Trocadéro that often closed with a light display on the Eiffel Tower. Menswear travelled further, to a beach in Malibu and to the Moroccan desert, where the show was built around a futuristic glowing ring by Es Devlin. He also set up Saint Laurent Productions, through which the house backed films including Jacques Audiard’s Oscar-winning Emilia Pérez, Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother and David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds.
Commercially, Vaccarello is credited with tripling Saint Laurent’s revenues to more than €3 billion, and earlier this year he was named International Designer of the Year at the 2026 CFDA Awards. Sales did fall by six per cent in 2025, a dip linked to the wider slowdown in luxury spending. Luca de Meo, chief executive of Kering, the French group that owns Saint Laurent, thanked the designer for his decade of work and said the house was beginning “a new chapter in its history”.
Vaccarello has not made a personal statement, and no next role has been announced. He once called Saint Laurent “the holy grail of fashion houses”. One name in circulation is Chemena Kamali, creative director of Chloé, who worked as ready-to-wear design director at Saint Laurent between 2016 and 2023. No successor has yet been named by the house.
