Hedi Slimane: the Main Facts From the Life of the Fashion Guru

Hedi Slimane`s name is familiar to any person who is fond of fashion trends of modern times. Most recently, on July 5, he celebrated his 49th birthday. We will talk about the main facts from the biography of this unique creator.

Stages of the Big Way

The future rock star of the fashion world was born in Paris in an international family: the mother of the future creative director Saint Laurent was Italian, and the dad was Tunisian. Hedi's parents owned a tailoring company, which, perhaps, predetermined one of the main passions in the life of Sliman.

Despite all the prerequisites for work as a designer, after school, Slimane went to study at the preparatory courses of the Institute for Political Studies, and afterwards - to the Louvre School, where he studied the history of the arts, while mastering the applied profession of a cutter.

A voucher to the world of fashion  was provided with an acquaintance with LVMH consultant Jean-Jacques Picard, who attracted a future designer to work on an exhibition dedicated to the centennial of the Louis Vuitton monogram in the early 1990s. However, his loud design debut took place a few years later - in 1996, when a close friend of Picard - Pierre Berge - invited Hedi to become the creative director of the Yves Saint Laurent  male line. The last work of Slimane for the fashion house in this position was the autumn-winter 2000 collection of Black Tie, in which the first androgyne silhouette, with which the name of the designer has been associated for almost two decades, was first found.

Immediately after leaving, Slimane was asked to lead the brand Jil Sander. However, he declined this offer, preferring to work on the male line of the Dior House. A well-known fact - Karl Lagerfeld in his interviews repeatedly admitted that he was forced to lose weight by more than 40 kilograms in the early 2000s, in order to look better in the costumes created by Slimane. The period from 2000 to 2007 - it is the era of the absolute triumph of the designer in the world of men's fashion. The cultivated ultra-thin silhouette was popularized by former indie rockers who were at the peak of their fame: The Libertines, The Kills, The Strokes and Franz Ferdinand. For the same years falls the golden age of hipster lifestyle with a characteristic skinny-image.

The era of Slimane in Dior Homme was completed in July 2007, when the designer decided not to renew the contract with the brand and for a while left the fashion world, having devoted all his time to photography.

Sensational designer's comeback happened in 2012, when Slimane was replaced by Stefano Pilati at the helm of Yves Saint Laurent. The designer from the first season turned the stylistics of brand shows upside down, proclaiming the main ideology of the House of Grunge and gender neutral and cutting off the name of its founder from the brand name.

Despite the ambiguous reviews of critics about the first collection of Slimane for Saint Laurent, the brand's sales have skyrocketed, and the House shows have become one of the most anticipated at the Paris Fashion Week.

The swan song of the designer in this post was the autumn-winter collection of 2016, presented in a chamber atmosphere. Almost immediately after the show, it became known about the resignation of Slimane and his replacement by Anthony Vaccarrello. This news was followed by a loud scandal - the designer sued the former employer - the company Kering, owning Saint Laurent and a number of other luxury brands - because of the incorrectly executed labor contract. And, that a rarity in such cases, he won a trial , earning 13 million euros in compensation.

Now Slimane is in the shadow of the world of fashion and meets his 49th birthday, devoting himself to the second passion - photography. Thanks to our friends from YourBrides for providing this article.