After ten years of reshaping Saint Laurent for a new generation, Anthony Vaccarello closed his extraordinary tenure in Paris with a final collection drenched in gold.
There was always going to be an added weight to Anthony Vaccarello’s final Saint Laurent show. After a decade at the helm, the designer presented his last collection for the house in Paris last night, bringing one of contemporary fashion’s most distinctive creative tenures to a close. And he did it in appropriately cinematic fashion.
Beneath the Eiffel Tower, a vast runway illuminated by oversized gold chandeliers became the setting for Saint Laurent Spring/Summer 2027. The scale was unmistakably Vaccarello: dramatic without becoming theatrical for theatre’s sake, polished to the smallest detail, and designed to create the kind of image instantly recognisable as Saint Laurent.
The front row offered another reminder of just how expansive the world he has built around the brand has become. Hailey Bieber, Zoë Kravitz, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Kate Moss and Post Malone were among the guests, several of them longstanding friends and ambassadors of the house who have become closely associated with Vaccarello’s Saint Laurent over the years.
Their presence felt particularly significant. Vaccarello’s contribution to the brand has extended far beyond the runway. During his ten years as creative director, he created an entire cultural universe around Saint Laurent, bringing together fashion, music, film, photography and celebrity with remarkable consistency.
When he arrived in 2016, the challenge was considerable. Saint Laurent already carried one of fashion’s most recognisable identities, along with the enormous legacy of Yves Saint Laurent himself. Vaccarello’s answer was not to abandon those codes, nor simply reproduce them. Instead, he gradually sharpened them into something distinctly his own.
The result became instantly recognisable. Power shoulders, impossibly short hems, precise tailoring, sheer fabrics, elongated silhouettes, black leather and an unapologetic sensuality all became signatures of the Vaccarello years. His clothes could be severe and seductive at once, often stripping an idea down until little remained beyond line, proportion and attitude. Over time, his own signatures became almost as identifiable as those he inherited.
His Spring/Summer 2027 collection then felt particularly poignant. Vaccarello looked across the different generations of Saint Laurent and brought them together. The house’s familiar safari jackets, trenches, blouses and wrap silhouettes appeared alongside the exaggerated shoulders, compact suits and voluminous outerwear that have come to characterise his own collections.
But the twist was the gold that tied everything together. Across the runway, it appeared burnished, pale, rich, reflective and almost antique, moving from luminous evening pieces to more structured daytime silhouettes. Fabrics caught the light differently with every step, while intricate surfaces, metallic finishes and elaborate embellishment brought a rare opulence to Vaccarello’s usually disciplined aesthetic.
Yet beneath all that gold, the clothes retained the clarity that has defined his work. The proportions remained deliberate, the shoulders strong and the silhouettes controlled. The show closed with a number of full-black looks, shifting the collection into darkness, perhaps as a metaphor for the weight of this moment for a creative director whose vision will live on long after his departure.
Most importantly, Vaccarello leaves behind a version of Saint Laurent that feels entirely established. Ten years is increasingly unusual in an industry defined by rapid creative change, and his longevity allowed him to refine an idea patiently until it became unmistakably his.
