Anthony Vaccarello marks a decade at the helm of Saint Laurent and receives the CFDA International Designer of the Year award amid growing speculation about his future.
In an industry increasingly accustomed to announcing creative director changes at an ever-faster pace, spending 10 consecutive years at the helm of one of the world’s major fashion houses has become something of an exception. Anthony Vaccarello has achieved exactly that at Saint Laurent, and he will celebrate the milestone with one of American fashion’s most prestigious honours: the 2026 CFDA International Designer of the Year award.
The accolade also arrives at a moment of heightened attention surrounding his future. In recent days, rumours have circulated about the designer’s possible departure and the hypothetical return to Saint Laurent of Chemena Kamali, Chloé’s current creative director and a former Vaccarello collaborator. However, neither fashion house has confirmed any such move, meaning the reports remain firmly in the realm of speculation.
While the industry attempts to predict his next major creative move, the Council of Fashion Designers of America has chosen to focus on what has already been achieved. Vaccarello will receive his award on 2 November 2026 during the CFDA Fashion Awards ceremony at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
His recognition is among the special awards announced in advance by the organisation. In other categories, names including Michael Kors, Tory Burch, Wes Gordon for Carolina Herrera and Catherine Holstein of Khaite will compete for honours, while Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are among the accessories nominees for The Row.
Vaccarello’s selection takes on particular significance precisely because of his longevity. The Belgian designer joined Saint Laurent in April 2016, succeeding Hedi Slimane following a period that had profoundly redefined the maison’s contemporary identity.
Rather than attempting a complete break with the past, Vaccarello gradually developed a distinctive language of his own. A decade later, his aesthetic is instantly recognisable: powerful shoulders, leather, sheer fabrics, abbreviated dresses, razor-sharp silhouettes, vertiginous heels and black as one of his defining visual signatures.
His work has never ignored the archives either. The designer has continually reinterpreted essential elements from Yves Saint Laurent’s history, adapting them through a more direct vision of sensuality. In 2026, to coincide with the 60th anniversary of Le Smoking, he once again placed the iconic women’s tuxedo at the heart of his winter collection.
Yet Vaccarello’s decade at Saint Laurent cannot be understood through the collections alone. He has helped transform the house into a much broader cultural platform. In 2023, Saint Laurent Productions was launched, a film division through which the maison has strengthened its ties with filmmakers including Pedro Almodóvar, David Cronenberg, Paolo Sorrentino and Jacques Audiard.
This strategy was further expanded with Saint Laurent Babylone in Paris, a space dedicated to books, photography, music and art. As a result, cinema, fashion and culture have become part of the same creative universe.
The commercial results also offer a measure of the transformation. In 2016, Saint Laurent recorded revenues of €1.22 billion, compared with €2.643 billion in 2025. Although that year was marked by broader challenges across the luxury sector and the house’s sales declined by 8%, Kering reported a return to growth during the first half of 2026, highlighting the positive performance of its new collections in North America and Western Europe.
