Saint Laurent parts with Vaccarello after 10 years, successor to come
Saint Laurent is looking for a new designer after a decade with Anthony Vaccarello.
Kering, the French luxury group that owns Saint Laurent, announced on 9 October 2026 that the Belgian designer would leave after a 10-year tenure. The group said it would unveil new creative leadership soon, WWD reported.
His last catwalk statement may already have happened. On 29 September in Paris, Vaccarello sent out a head-to-toe gold collection of slinky dresses and textured tailoring, Reuters reported. The show closed Paris Fashion Week, the final stop in the four-city calendar of New York, London, Milan and Paris.
The name in circulation is Chemena Kamali. Kamali, currently creative director at Chloé, the Paris fashion house, is widely expected to succeed Vaccarello. She knows the building. She served as Saint Laurent's women's ready-to-wear design director, the lead for factory-made clothes sold in standard sizes, under Vaccarello from 2016 to 2023.
Equity analysts have been told the next designer has already been selected. That person is expected to focus on women's daywear, menswear and high-end leather goods, the bags and accessories sold at the top price tier. Kering expects no disruption to the product pipeline during the change, pointing to a current skew to carry-over leather goods, styles that stay on sale across seasons rather than changing with each show.
The change is the first major designer switch at Saint Laurent under Luca de Meo, who has been chief executive officer of Kering since September 2025. Kamali has her own date in the diary. She will head the fashion jury at the 2026 Hyères Festival, the annual competition for young designers held in southern France.
For fans, this means a short wait and a familiar face if the expectation holds. A designer moving from Chloé to Saint Laurent would trade one Paris house for another with a larger menswear business and a heavier reliance on bags. Kering has not confirmed a name or a start date.
