Saint Laurent’s Power Woman “I knew that she had the qualities needed for the job: first, a strong personality and the ability to dedicate herself entirely to her mission without any hesitation; second, the capability to quickly understand what makes this maison so special and to endorse it — and indeed, she adapted very quickly to Saint Laurent in a key moment of its history.” Mr. Pinault “called me to Paris one Friday afternoon,” Ms. Bellettini recalled. Ms. Bellettini, 47, not only has propelled the brand into the exclusive billion-euro club — a status unofficially codified last season when the Saint Laurent show was moved to the shadow of the Eiffel Tower — but in doing so has also made herself one of the most powerful women in fashion, where there are only a handful of female chief executives. Even before Mr. Slimane decided not to renew his contract after slightly less than four years at the house, Ms. Bellettini had noticed an interesting trend in fashion magazines and shops like Colette in Paris and Bergdorf’s in New York: Mr. Vaccarello’s ready-to-wear was being matched up with Saint Laurent’s accessories. “I didn’t know Anthony personally, but I thought, ‘He is the only one who can come here and do Saint Laurent, in the way Anthony sees women,’” she said. An Italian woman who had never run a company, lived in Paris or learned the unwritten codes of French society, she was considered a strange choice to become chief executive of Yves Saint Laurent, the ultimate French brand, in 2013. In a second, I said, ‘Yes!’ Then I said, ‘You know I don’t speak French, right?’ and he said, ‘I know that.
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