Stop Everything — Diana Ross Is Saint Laurent’s Latest Campaign Star

Diana Ross in an unpredictable lady. Throughout her decades-long career, she’s developed a penchant for keeping fans on their toes, be it by releasing a surprise album or making an unplanned fashion week appearance. We’re still not over the star’s most recent bombshell, when she serenaded birthday girl Beyoncé at the Renaissance world tour with a performance that ultimately left both the Beyhive and Ross devotees in a tizzy. Now, five months after that major meet-up, Saint Laurent Creative Director Anthony Vaccarello has shared Ross’s next big move via Instagram: she’s the label’s Spring/Summer 2024 campaign star. And while the announcement was certainly unexpected, it came as no surprise that the icon looks absolutely stellar in the corresponding imagery.

Seeing that Ross truly needs no introduction, Vaccarello kept his caption simple and let the black-and-white photo speak for itself. Less than ten minutes after the director broke the news on Jan. 8, certain corners of the internet were set ablaze — even some of the industry’s biggest names flooded his comment section. Naomi Campbell, for one — who’s also a Saint Laurent campaign alum — shared her excitement saying, “QUEEN THE BOSS,” while Marc Jacobs and Jasmine Tookes both matched her energy with a slew of enthusiastic emojis.

In true Saint Laurent fashion, the main campaign photo was seemingly simple, giving Ross and her clothes the opportunity to shine through without any distractions. The “Coming Out” singer stunned in a body-hugging black maxi complete with off-the-shoulder sleeves and an extra halter embellishment around her neck. While Ross usually takes the mindset of “the more glitz, the better” with her on- and off-stage selections, she wears understated diamond stud earrings in the photo, allowing the dress to take centerstage. Meanwhile, her natural curls (styled in a voluminous, ‘70s-inspired afro) and smokey eye makeup feel both glamorous and artfully undone.

While this campaign marks the first official collaboration between Ross and the French atelier, the actor has quite an expansive history with the label, dating back to the 1970s. When she left The Supremes to kickstart her solo career around 1972, Ross posed on various magazine covers dressed in glamorous Saint Laurent get-ups — quickly establishing herself as a fashion muse outside of her girl group. Later in the decade, she also sat front row at the designer’s Spring/Summer 1980 runway show in a sleek suit set adorned with a particularly extravagant collar, a trademark look of the time.

In short? Given her deep-rooted connection to the atelier, there’s no one better to spearhead the drop of their new Spring/Summer 2024 collection than Ross.