Saint Laurent's creative director Anthony Vaccarello leaves after a decade, with no successor yet named
Kering's Saint Laurent is parting with Anthony Vaccarello after ten years as creative director, leaving the Japanese department stores and malls that carry the house — from GINZA SIX and Matsuya Ginza to Hankyu Umeda and Matsuzakaya Nagoya — waiting to learn whose collections fill those floors next.
Saint Laurent said on 9 October that Anthony Vaccarello, its creative director since 2016, is leaving the house, in a statement published by its parent company, Kering. The announcement named no successor and gave no date for his exit; Saint Laurent said only that it would announce its new creative leadership soon.
Kering chief executive Luca de Meo and Cedric Charbit, Saint Laurent's president and chief executive, both thanked Vaccarello for his ten years at the house in the statement, with de Meo saying the group was embarking on "a new chapter" in its history. The release did not give a reason for the departure.
What it means for Japan's floors
Saint Laurent is a fixture of Japan's luxury floors. Among the buildings whose floor guides floortok maps, last captured in June, its fashion boutiques appear in eight: GINZA SIX and Matsuya Ginza in Tokyo, Hankyu Umeda and Daimaru Shinsaibashi in Osaka, Matsuzakaya Nagoya and JR Nagoya Takashimaya, and Daimaru's Kyoto and Sapporo stores. That excludes the Yves Saint Laurent beauty counters on the cosmetics floors, and the maps do not yet cover every store, so eight is a floor rather than a count. Each of those spaces will in time be selling the work of whoever Saint Laurent names next.
Japan carries real weight for the group. Its first-half report put Japan at €539 million, or 7% of group revenue, in the six months to June — up 2% on a comparable basis, though down 10% as reported in euros. The group's fashion and leather-goods houses, Saint Laurent among them, ran 172 directly operated stores in Japan at the end of June after closing a net 16 in the half, and the segment's Japan sales fell 8% on a comparable basis, with Kering saying they improved in the second quarter.
The announcement also follows a half in which Kering described the house itself as gaining ground. In its July report the group said Saint Laurent's sales had picked up in most of its markets as clients responded to its newer collections, with ready-to-wear and shoes growing sharply.
In our view, those are the categories to watch on Japanese floors: ready-to-wear and shoes are where Kering located the house's recent growth, and they change most directly with the designer. Until Saint Laurent names its next creative lead, that is the open question for the buyers and the stores that host it. The house has said only that the answer is coming soon.