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\n\tWUHAN \u2014<\/strong> \u201cYves Saint Laurent was never looking backward,\u201d C\u00e9dric Charbit, chief executive officer of Saint Laurent, said at the WWD x SKP Global Fashion & Beauty Summit in Wuhan, China, on Oct. 22. \u201cHe was always in sync with his time and always looking at what was happening next.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tCharbit said that idea is as relevant to the house today as it was to its founder: use Saint Laurent\u2019s history to engage with the present, rather than preserve the past.<\/p>\n \n\tOn stage, the CEO since January 2025 thanked Anthony Vaccarello for his decade as creative director. Vaccarello stepped down earlier this month and a successor is expected to be named soon. <\/p>\n \n\tCharbit said Vaccarello had made \u201ca massive impact on our financial trajectory, on our image\u201d and created \u201ca very recognizable silhouette\u201d for men and women. He also credited him with helping the brand build cultural relevance.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cTen years in our industry is quite a long one,\u201d Charbit said. But a CEO, he added, has \u201dto look at the future and plan ahead the next 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tSaint Laurent is in a strong position, he said, but \u201cthere is somehow much more we can do with it.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tFor Charbit, that forward-looking spirit goes back to Yves Saint Laurent himself.<\/p>\n \n\tThe designer arrived in Paris at 19 and opened his couture house with Pierre Berg\u00e9 at 21. \u201cHe had no heritage in mind. He didn\u2019t know he would leave behind him such a great legacy,\u201d Charbit said. What mattered then was expressing \u201chis creativity and vision.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe house\u2019s move into ready-to-wear in 1966 was another example of Saint Laurent responding to his time. The shift reflected a changing society, Charbit said, as women increasingly bought clothes with their own money. Ready-to-wear was \u201cabout understanding the now.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tSo how does a fashion house work with its heritage without getting stuck in it? Saint Laurent has extraordinary archives, codes and savoir-faire, Charbit said. But the real question is: \u201cWhat do you do with all this?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tFor him, the answer starts with having something meaningful to say.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cYou need to be authentic. You need to be credible. You need to tell a story that allows people to live,\u201d he said. Without a background, skills and rules, he added, \u201cthere is nothing you can tell your clients.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThat clarity matters even more in a difficult luxury market.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cYou have no choice\u201d but to learn to operate through highs and lows, Charbit said. When business is booming, confidence can turn into overconfidence and investment into overinvestment. When the market slows, companies can become too cautious and start questioning everything.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhat you need to do is to really clarify what you stand for, what you believe in as a company, as a brand,\u201d he said. Challenging conditions shouldn\u2019t curb ambition, he added. \u201cIt should simply make it more precise and sharper.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tCharbit said Saint Laurent\u2019s recent product launches and experiences had performed well; his focus is on \u201cwhat to do next and how to do things better.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWhen asked about the house\u2019s priorities for the future, Charbit put creativity first.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cNo compromise about this. Creativity is at the center of Saint Laurent,\u201d he said. While one person may have the vision, he added, bringing it to life is \u201ca collective achievement,\u201d involving everyone from merchandising and retail to the supply chain and the atelier.<\/p>\n \n\tSaint Laurent also wants to become a more complete house, Charbit said, but \u201cnever at the expense of identity.\u201d That means looking across categories, geographies, clients and experiences, and finding ways to serve them better.<\/p>\n \n\tThe client, he added, needs to stay at the center of those decisions.<\/p>\n \n\tCharbit said he pays attention to every touchpoint, from stores to online and offline activities. Experiences, he said, will only become more important.<\/p>\n \n\tIn an industry that tracks everything from traffic and sales to fashion-show performance, Charbit said he\u2019s also interested in what a spreadsheet can\u2019t capture: a brand\u2019s ability to create desire and offer experiences that matter. \u201cYou cannot really build that desire in the long run from a spreadsheet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \n\tTechnology, including artificial intelligence, can help brands understand their clients and anticipate what they might want, he said.<\/p>\n \n\tBut fashion houses shouldn\u2019t stop at giving people what they already expect. \u201cWe need to do things that people don\u2019t have the idea they will want to wear in the future,\u201d Charbit said. \u201cWe need to surprise them.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHe sees luxury becoming more personal, too.<\/p>\n \n\tCharbit questioned whether clients still buy things to impress people they don\u2019t know, or to post a picture and seek likes. Increasingly, he said, clients want to express themselves, feel inspired and be part of a community.<\/p>\n \n\tCharbit said his own approach to leadership was shaped by years in retail and by working with creative teams. He recalled a conversation with SKP chairman Ji Xiao\u2019an about store layouts, assortments and brand positioning, and said the exchange offered a valuable Chinese perspective on retail.<\/p>\n \n\tWorking with creative leaders also taught him the importance of believing in a vision and bringing others along. The best work, he said, comes from bringing together different expertise, opinions and even disagreements. \u201cIt\u2019s never a one-man show.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tOver time, Charbit said, he has come to value action as much as the outcome. \u201cWhat matters the most is the action itself,\u201d he said. Take the risk, learn from the decision and move forward \u2014 whether it leads to success or a mistake.<\/p>\n \n\tSaint Laurent\u2019s connection with China goes back decades. Charbit cited the house\u2019s 1977 Chinese collection and Yves Saint Laurent\u2019s 1985 visit to Beijing, where he was invited by China\u2019s culture minister and held a retrospective at the National Fine Arts Museum.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI am very confident in the future we have here in China,\u201d Charbit said, while acknowledging that Saint Laurent still has work to do.<\/p>\n \n\tThe brand entered the market in 2010, he said, and is relocating, renovating or redesigning stores, rethinking assortments and working to communicate more effectively with local clients. He said the goal is to address 90 percent of the store network by the end of 2027.<\/p>\n \n\tCharbit said the aim isn\u2019t growth for its own sake. \u201cWe want to make sure we matter more,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n WUHAN \u2014 \u201cYves Saint Laurent was never looking backward,\u201d C\u00e9dric Charbit, chief executive officer of Saint Laurent, said at the WWD x SKP Global Fashion & Beauty Summit in Wuhan, China, on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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