Exit in Black
Anthony Vaccarello is leaving Saint Laurent after ten years. Kering made it official on 9 October. His last show had already told us how he wanted to go.
It’s official. Anthony Vaccarello is leaving Saint Laurent. Kering announced the departure on 9 October 2026, ten days after his Spring Summer 2027 show in Paris, and ended the statement with one line everyone has now screenshotted: “The House will soon announce its new creative leadership.”
Soon. Not today. So before someone sends you a name with a lot of confidence and zero sources, here’s where things stand: no successor has been announced. When there’s an official name, you’ll read it here. Until then, every name going around is a rumour, and we don’t run rumours.
Ten years and two days
Vaccarello took over in 2016, after Hedi Slimane left the house. His SS27 show landed ten years and two days after his debut, which feels less like a coincidence the longer you look at it.
The setting was very him. A glossy black runway, three huge candlelit chandeliers, the Eiffel Tower sparkling behind it all. Then the clothes: 49 looks in gold. Sahariennes and trenches in crackly metallic cotton, cocktail dresses that looked like lace made of metal, cropped brocade jackets. And then the last ten looks came out in black. All black.
49 in gold, then 10 in black
- 01Look 14. A fitted gold dress that catches the light.
- 02Look 30. A gold jacket and skirt.
- 03Look 45. Gold slip dress.
- 04Look 49. The last gold look.
- 05Look 50. The first black look. Watch the shoulders.
- 06Look 51. Black, floor length, full volume.
- 07Look 55. Black, draped, open at the leg.
- 08Look 59. The final look. Black, all the way down.
Photos: Gorunway.com / Vogue Runway
If you know your house history, you clocked it. Yves Saint Laurent’s Fall 1991 Rive Gauche show ended in gold. Vaccarello flipped it and ended in black. The show notes even quoted Monsieur on gold: “It’s a magical color, when reflecting a woman, it’s the color of the sun.”
He didn’t do interviews. Instead there were black calla lilies and a note: “It’s a very personal one for me, charged with emotion, so this time I’d rather not say too much.” Then Charlotte Gainsbourg, a longtime Vaccarello loyalist, closed the show with a surprise performance of a song whose chorus repeats “You are so much, Yves Saint Laurent.”
In hindsight, he said plenty.
What he actually did
The lazy summary of the Vaccarello decade is sexy, sharp, black. The more interesting version is that he treated the founder’s codes like a dare. From around Fall 2019 he pushed Saint Laurent silhouettes to the extreme, shoulders and proportions dialled up until they read almost graphic. Look 50 from the last show is basically the thesis.
He also took the runway outside, to the Trocadéro, with the tower lit up behind the models. That backdrop is now so linked to him that it’s hard to picture the next show anywhere else.
And then the move people will copy for years: a fashion house making films. Saint Laurent Productions launched in 2023 and its name is on Emilia Pérez, which won at Cannes, and on Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope. So the house dresses the red carpet and also produces the films premiering on it. That’s a different level of cultural power.
“Anthony took Saint Laurent on a remarkable trajectory, elevating the House to the forefront of desirability and image.”
The numbers
Under Vaccarello, Saint Laurent’s revenue more than tripled, peaking at €3.3 billion in 2022. For scale, Slimane had taken the house from €354 million in 2011 to €974 million in 2015. Vaccarello took it past three billion.
Then luxury slowed down for everybody. Revenue fell 9% in 2024 and 6% in 2025, landing at €2.64 billion last year. Kering says sales have largely stabilised this year. So whoever comes next inherits a house that is huge, steady, and expected to grow again. Kering’s 2030 targets for the house include more than doubling menswear and tripling jewellery.
Why this one matters
Saint Laurent was the last big Kering house to keep its designer. Gucci, Balenciaga and Bottega Veneta all changed creative leadership before this. With Vaccarello going, the whole group has now reset.
Kering reports its third quarter sales on 22 October. Whether a name lands before, after or on the same day, we’ll be watching, and we’ll only tell you when it’s real.
Our read
Some designers leave mid season, or with a press release and no goodbye show. Vaccarello got a full stop. Forty nine looks in gold, ten in black, a bunch of black lilies and one sentence about not saying too much. It’s the most Saint Laurent exit possible. Honestly, it’s the most Vaccarello one too.
What was your favourite Vaccarello show?
Read the FoldTell us on Instagram · @read.thefold
