Saint Laurent to show autumn/winter collection in Los Angeles

As rumours grow that Hedi Slimane will be departing Saint Laurent, the brand announces its next show will be staged in Los Angeles

There has certainly been a trend of late for fashion shows to up sticks from their regular homes to new destinations. Tom Ford started the trend last year when he showed his autumn/winter 2015 collection in LA ahead of the Oscars and the resort collections are regularly shown in all manner of exotic destinations from Palm Springs to Cannes.

The newest addition to that list is Saint Laurent who will not be showing its autumn/winter 2016 menswear collection in Paris this month as usual, instead it will head to LA to show "Saint Laurent at the Palladium" - a one night only music tribute show which will also feature part 1 of the womenswear offerings for the season.

In a series of tweets, the brand made the announcement yesterday declaring that the show will be a "tribute to the strong music scene in Los Angeles." It's fitting then that the show will take place 5 days before the annual Grammy awards, where the brand will no doubt be dressing numerous attendees.

The show will also celebrate the 10 year anniversary of creative director Hedi Slimane's photo blog the 'Hedi Slimane diary' which has documented the music scene in LA.


 Hedi Slimane, creative director at Saint Laurent
 (Getty Images)

The announcement comes as speculation mounts on the future of Slimane at the label, who took on the role of creative director in 2012. WWD is reporting that the designer has as yet failed to come to an agreement renewing his contract at the fashion house.

It's also rumoured that a successor is already being lined up - Anthony Vaccarello who is currently the creative director of Versus, although Saint Laurent has declined to comment on the rumours.

The news comes during a period of unsettlement amongst the French fashion houses with both Dior and Lanvin yet to announce new designers following the departures of Raf Simons and Alber Elbaz late last year.