On Friday October 9, Kering said that Anthony Vaccarello is leaving Saint Laurent after a decade as creative director, with a successor "to be announced soon," as reported by Tassilo Hummel and Helen Reid for Reuters. On Thursday October 15 it said the same about Seán McGirr at Alexander McQueen, three years after his appointment, and again without a name to replace him, as reported by Kyle Munzenrieder in W.
Two houses, six days, no successors. Read together, the two exits are less about designers than about what Luca de Meo now expects a designer to be for.
Saint Laurent: the exit of a designer who delivered
Vaccarello is not leaving a house in trouble in the way McQueen is. He took over from Hedi Slimane in 2016 and took Saint Laurent to well over €3 billion in annual sales in 2023, as reported by Reuters. Then the number turned: gross revenue fell 9% in 2024 and 6% in 2025, and has largely stabilised this year, according to Kering's figures cited by Reuters.
His last collection, which we reviewed three weeks ago, was a ten-year summary in gold, the archive gilded from head to toe. We called it precise as a statement and easy to argue with as clothes. Seen from this side of the announcement, it reads as a designer closing his own file before anyone else could.
The clearest description of the job he leaves behind came from the analysts, not the house. Barclays wrote that "the focus of the new designer will be in currently under-represented product categories," naming women's daywear, menswear, high-end leather goods and China and Asia, as reported by Reuters. That is a brief written in categories and regions, not in silhouettes. Saint Laurent under Vaccarello became a precise evening image. Kering wants a house that sells a Tuesday.
Speculation has settled on Chemena Kamali, creative director of Chloé and previously womenswear design director at Saint Laurent, Reuters reported, adding that neither Chloé nor its owner Richemont commented. Until Kering confirms, it is a rumour with a logic: a designer who has already built a daywear business at another house and knows this one from inside.
McQueen: a house that shrank under the wrong product
McQueen is the harder case, and the numbers explain why. Bernstein estimates the house's annual sales have fallen below €200 million, from a post-Covid peak of €800 million, as reported by AFP via The Star. Bernstein's Luca Solca put the diagnosis plainly: "The problem of (Alexander) McQueen is that it had relied on streetwear and sneakers for its growth."
That is the important sentence, because the decline McGirr is paying for began with a sneaker, not with his shows. He arrived in late 2023 from JW Anderson, where he had been head of ready-to-wear, to succeed Sarah Burton, and his collections, with their devil-horn wigs, plexiglass dresses and bumster jeans, did not win over critics or buyers, as W reported. Fair enough. But no runway was going to replace a business built on one shoe. In September we wrote that his decision to bring McQueen back to the London schedule was the most meaningful gesture of the week. It is now his last one.
De Meo first explored selling McQueen and chose cost cuts instead, including job cuts and shop closures, AFP reported. The statement on the exit had him promising "a bold new direction for the House," and the house's chief executive, Gianfranco D'Attis, thanking McGirr for helping "reconnect Alexander McQueen with London," as reported by Brooke Frischer in The Zoe Report. A house that was for sale a few months ago and now wants a bold new direction is asking its next designer for a turnaround on a smaller budget. That is a difficult appointment to fill, which may be why there is no name yet.
The pattern, and the one outside Kering
Saint Laurent completes a cycle. Gucci, Balenciaga and Bottega Veneta all changed creative directors last year, Reuters noted, so by the time a successor is named, all four of Kering's largest fashion houses will have a designer who arrived in the last two years. AFP reported persistent rumours that Pierpaolo Piccioli could leave Balenciaga too, less than eighteen months after his appointment. Kering has said nothing, and we treat it as rumour until it does.
The same week also had an exit outside Kering. Veronica Leoni will leave Calvin Klein Collection at the end of her contract, announced about an hour before McGirr's, The Zoe Report noted. Different owner, same calculation: after four seasons and improving reviews, a creative director is still judged on whether the business moved.
That is the thread. This October, both of Kering's exits were explained in sales numbers, by analysts, before anyone discussed the clothes. As Solca put it to AFP: "There is a lot on creative directors' shoulders these days."
What to watch
Kering publishes its third-quarter sales on Thursday October 22, as reported by Reuters, with its shares down 31% this year by the time of the Saint Laurent announcement. In July the group posted its first positive quarter in three years, with Gucci still slightly negative. A week ago LVMH showed that China is pulling fashion back down. Thursday will show whether Kering's numbers make the two exits look like housekeeping or like urgency. And then, the two names: Saint Laurent's will say whether Kering wants a continuation or a new customer; McQueen's will say whether it still wants a house at all, or a brand.
Vaccarello's exit, his tenure, Saint Laurent's revenue trend, the Kamali speculation, the Barclays note, Kering's share performance and the October 22 results date as reported by Tassilo Hummel and Helen Reid for Reuters (October 9, 2026). McGirr's exit, background and collections as reported by Kyle Munzenrieder in W (October 15, 2026). Bernstein's sales estimate, Luca Solca's quotes, the sale and cost-cut history and the Balenciaga rumour as reported by AFP via The Star (October 19, 2026). Statements by Luca de Meo and Gianfranco D'Attis and the Calvin Klein timing as reported by Brooke Frischer in The Zoe Report (October 15, 2026). Leoni's departure also reported by NSS Magazine.
