How do you go from an “overnight celebrity favorite,” as Vogue dubbed the French designer Ludovic de Saint Sernin last October, to dressing fangirls and fanboys around the world? You get a call from Zara.
The Spanish fashion super-retailer approached de Saint Sernin not long after a string of red carpet coups that saw the actresses Anya Taylor-Joy, Mia Goth, Laura Harrier, and Ella Hunt (their contracts with much bigger Paris labels notwithstanding) photographed in his sexy fall 2024 collection dresses, all glittering crystal chainmail and strappy eyeleted black leather.
Now, a year in the making, Ludovic de Saint Sernin x Zara is arriving in stores. The clothing, shoes, and accessories—with flat studs replacing his signature eyelets—will be recognizable to both his boldfaced friends and the fashionable young people for whom he’s become a sort of designer lightning rod, stretching the limits of gender expression with lace-up briefs, metal breastplates, braided leather bodices, and sheer everything. Let’s not forget that back in 2017 de Saint Sernin emerged as a menswear designer, though he didn’t stay that way for long—not with the heat that comes off his clothes.
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The Zara offer came as de Saint Sernin was working on a one-off spring 2025 haute couture collection for Jean Paul Gaultier. “That was incredibly exciting for me,” he says. “Because on one hand, I was getting to design a collection for a happy few [at JPG]. And then on the other hand [at Zara], it was a global scale. I want to be able to reach a bigger audience.”
As for why Zara chose him, de Saint Sernin theorizes, “I think what’s exciting about me is I’m probably the youngest one that they’ve worked with on this type of project, and I think the collaborations that I’ve done in the past would inspire them.” In addition to the Gaultier couture one-off, he briefly designed Ann Demeulemeester. “And I think that my community is exciting to them.”
Who is his community? “I like to think that it could be whoever relates to my experience,” he says. “I think it’s really important as a young queer designer to not just build my own brand, be independent in the industry, and produce fashion garments, but also to tell stories and be visible.” Models of the moment Alex Consani and Amelia Gray join de Saint Sernin in the Zara campaign, which was shot in New York, a city of “great significance” for the designer, not least of all because it was his fall 2024 collection, shown in NYC and made in collaboration with the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, that produced the red-carpet kismet that landed him where he is now.
“I invited my mom to the video shoot, because I wanted her to see how big a project it is for us,” de Saint Sernin says. “She was there on set with us for the two days that we filmed, and she was trying on the clothes. ‘I can finally wear LdSS,’ she said. And I was, like, yes, that’s the whole point.”
Ludovic de Saint Sernin x Zara ranges from $25.90 to $1,399 and will be available from November 17, 2026 at zara.com and at select stores worldwide. Shop an edit of the collab, below.
