Saint Laurent Studio Alumni: Slimane to Nesselrath
On 4 June 2026, Carven confirmed that Kai Nesselrath — Polimoda graduate, Italian-of-German-descent, and for nearly a decade the womenswear head designer inside Anthony Vaccarello’s studio at Saint Laurent — would become the house’s new design director, succeeding Mark Thomas, who exited in April. His debut runway is set for Paris Fashion Week SS27 in October. The appointment is the latest, and one of the most legible, entries in a register that has run almost without interruption since 1996: the list of Saint Laurent studio alumni who left the avenue Marceau and avenue George V ateliers to take creative-director or design-director chairs elsewhere in luxury. Read end-to-end, that register reads less like a series of one-off exits and more like a farm system — an in-house finishing school that, for thirty years, has produced more chiefs than any other ready-to-wear studio in Paris. ...