THE RISE OF ANTHONY VACCARELLO AT SAINT LAURENT
Photo by @nowfashion
If you’ve been keeping up with Saint Laurent for the past eight years, you probably already know who Anthony Vaccarello is. If you haven’t, you’ll discover the creative mind behind the brand since 2016.
After Hedi Slimane, a former creative director for Saint Laurent, Dior Homme and Celine, stepped away from the role of creative director at Saint Laurent, Vaccarello was appointed.
Vaccarello, who was the creative director for Versus Versace for three years as well as for his eponymous brand, had gained an even bigger responsibility at Saint Laurent, especially after its previous rebranding by Slimane when he dropped “Yves” from the brand’s name.
A lot of times we see creative directors for fashion houses move to another house, yet they are still usually the same names. This happened with Alessandro Michele from Gucci to Valentino, Daniel Lee from Bottega Veneta to Burberry, Ricardo Tisci from Givenchy to Burberry and many more.
Though he did work with Donatella at Versus Versace, this was still almost like a breath of fresh air for the fashion industry as well as Saint Laurent.
If you were to look at Vaccarello’s collections for both womenswear and menswear since he started, you may think this was always the job he wanted. However, that’s quite the opposite.
Vaccarello had learned about fashion and style in the 90s from watching Madonna who was dressed by Jean Paul Gaultier many times. While he kept up with fashion, he didn’t initially go to school for it. He originally attended a Belgium law school but dropped out after a year in.
After a period of deciding on what he wanted to do, he ended up applying to La Cambre, a visual arts school. However, this new dream he had didn’t start immediately as he was rejected. Vaccarello then took another path, studying sculpture, before he was finally accepted to La Cambre two years later.
After creating a graduate collection that was very centered around leather, his work was seen by none other than Karl Lagerfeld. In 2006, Lagerfeld then offered him a position at Fendi’s fur workshop in Rome where Vaccarello worked for two years.
He was then recruited by a French retailer to make his own collection before moving on to become the creative director of Versus Versace. But after three years, he accepted the creative director position at Saint Laurent which, in an interview with the New York Times, he considered “the biggest brand in the world.”
Vaccarello’s debut collection for Saint Laurent was showcased in September 2016 for the spring/summer 2017 season. This debut collection contained pieces that were an homage to some archival pieces.
In 2016, the Saint Laurent Instagram account was completely wiped of its photos. Though this did come with some criticism, it was for rebranding its social media marketing. Later on, this was also done with Burberry in early 2023.
After a few seasons into this new position, the criticism he received deemed his clothing to be too sexy for the brand. This was most likely because Yves Saint Laurent was known for creating tailored suits and elegance for his collections.
Fast forward to 2023 and it’s easy to see that Vaccarello has leaned into bringing back the pantsuits and perfect tailoring for both womenswear and menswear, but in his own way. Now his designs show a mixture of traditional suits while still keeping a sexy feel to it.
His latest collection, the spring/summer 2025 women’s ready-to-wear collection showcased both his own style and the classic style the fashion house is used to. Many of the runway looks included oversized tailored suits, all while keeping it elegant. There were also some lace see-through dresses which is where the “sexy” side of his designs comes into play.
The rebranding of the house was done in his way too. Vaccarello started using relevant, young models and celebrities like Hailey Bieber and Zoё Kravitz to be the faces and ambassadors of Saint Laurent. Recent campaigns also included Bella Hadid, Chloё Sevigny, Jeremy Allen White and more. He’s also dressed stars like Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldaña.
Not only has Vaccarello put a twist on the classic Yves Saint Laurent style, but he succeeded in doing so. GQ reported that the creative director increased sales by nearly $1.78 billion, though Vaccarello doesn’t consider the numbers when designing.
While the focus is usually on womenswear at a lot of fashion houses, Vaccarello puts a lot of effort and thought into the menswear collections from the actual designs themselves to even the fashion show venues.
In 2022, he showcased his men’s spring 2023 collection in the Agafay Desert, nearly an hour away from Marrakech, a place where Yves Saint Laurent himself owned two homes. The Musée Yves Saint Laurent is also located there. This collection was said to be his best menswear collection yet, with Vogue calling it “intimate, real and strong.”
There’s no doubt that Vaccarello has had an impact on Saint Laurent, but from the success and rise of the brand, it’s safe to say it’s been a positive one.