Saint Laurent After Vaccarello’s Final Bow

Beneath the Eiffel Tower, Anthony Vaccarello turned Saint Laurent’s runway into a stage for a particular kind of glamour: commanding shoulders, exposed skin and evening clothes with an unmistakable edge. That decade has closed. Kering confirmed on 9 October that the Belgian designer had left the house, ending a tenure that carried its identity from the Paris catwalk into cinema.

Appointed in 2016 after Hedi Slimane, Vaccarello worked with the tension between masculine tailoring and sensual dressing embedded in Saint Laurent’s history. Colour and volume broadened his interpretation, while theatrical presentations gave the clothes a setting as recognisable as their silhouettes. His final collection, shown in Paris on 29 September for spring/summer 2027, moved from gilded looks towards darkness. In its announcement, Kering credited him with strengthening the house’s influence across fashion and culture; Saint Laurent chief executive Cedric Charbit praised both his creative achievements and cultural impact.

That wider ambition took tangible form in Saint Laurent Productions, the film subsidiary launched in 2023. Its debut included Pedro Almodóvar’s Strange Way of Life, starring Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal, which premiered at Cannes. Subsequent projects have involved directors including David Cronenberg and Paolo Sorrentino. The venture gave Vaccarello’s cinematic interests an existence beyond advertising campaigns, placing the house within film production itself. It leaves a cultural legacy that cannot be measured solely through the collections hanging in its boutiques.

Saint Laurent said it would announce new creative leadership soon, without naming a successor. The appointment will determine how much of Vaccarello’s visual language survives and where the house chooses to move next. For its clients, the change raises a question familiar whenever a defining designer departs: which elements belong enduringly to the label, and which belonged to the person interpreting it? Vaccarello leaves that distinction vivid, in clothes and on screen.