Exit in Black

Anthony Vaccarello’s last Saint Laurent show said goodbye before the company did. Forty-nine looks in gold, then ten in black: a reversal of the gold finale that closed Yves Saint Laurent’s Fall 1991 Rive Gauche show. Ten days later, on 9 October 2026, Kering confirmed he was leaving the house he had led since 2016.

The statement closes with one line: “The House will soon announce its new creative leadership.” No successor has been named. Until there is an official name, every name in circulation 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 Spring Summer 2027 show, on 29 September, came ten years and two days after his debut.

The setting was pure Vaccarello: a glossy black runway, three candlelit chandeliers, the Eiffel Tower sparkling behind. Then 49 looks in gold. Sahariennes and trenches in crackly metallic cotton, cocktail dresses like lace made of metal, cropped brocade jackets. The last ten came out in black.

49 in gold, then 10 in black

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The reference is exact. Yves Saint Laurent ended Fall 1991 in gold; Vaccarello ended in black. The show notes quoted the founder on the colour: “It’s a magical color, when reflecting a woman, it’s the color of the sun.”

He gave no interviews. Guests received 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.” 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.

The decade in three moves

The silhouette first. From around Fall 2019 he pushed the founder’s shapes to the extreme, shoulders and proportions turned up until they read almost graphic. Look 50 from the last show is the thesis in one frame.

Then the stage. He took the runway outside, to the Trocadéro, with the tower lit up behind the models, a backdrop now so tied to him that it is hard to picture the next show anywhere else.

Then the screen. Saint Laurent Productions launched in 2023, and its name is on Emilia Pérez, which won at Cannes, and on Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope. The house dresses the red carpet and produces films that premiere on it.

“Anthony took Saint Laurent on a remarkable trajectory, elevating the House to the forefront of desirability and image.”

The numbers

Saint Laurent’s revenue more than tripled under Vaccarello, peaking at €3.3 billion in 2022, by Kering’s own figures. For scale, Slimane had taken the house from €354 million in 2011 to €974 million in 2015.

Then luxury slowed for everyone. Kering reports Saint Laurent revenue of €2.88 billion in 2024 and €2.64 billion in 2025, down 6% on a comparable basis last year. Kering says sales have largely stabilised this year, and its 2030 targets for the house include more than doubling menswear and tripling jewellery. The next creative director inherits a house that is large, steady and expected to grow again.

Why it matters

Saint Laurent was the last of Kering’s big houses to keep its designer. Gucci, Balenciaga and Bottega Veneta all changed creative leadership first. With Vaccarello going, all four of Kering’s biggest houses will have new creative leadership.

Kering reports third-quarter sales on 22 October. When a successor is official, it will be here.

Our read

Most creative directors leave by press release. Vaccarello staged his exit inside the collection and let the company confirm it afterwards. The reversal is more than sentiment. By closing on black, the colour most associated with his decade, he ended on his own code rather than the founder’s. The next designer starts from a house that has just been shown, in public, exactly where one era stopped.