Hedi Slimane Returning to Yves Saint Laurent |
Get ready for more Hedi times at Yves Saint Laurent.The
storied French fashion house will reveal today that men’s wear
superstar Hedi Slimane is its new creative director — a dozen years
after he exited YSL Rive Gauche Pour Homme to heat up Dior Homme.He
is to assume “total creative responsibility for the brand image and all
its collections,” while continuing to pursue his career in photography,
WWD has learned.
WWD.com reported on Feb. 25
that Slimane was poised to nab the YSL designer post, succeeding
Stefano Pilati, who enjoyed a fruitful, if turbulent, eight-year tenure.
“As
one of the most important French fashion houses, Yves Saint
Laurent
today possesses formidable potential, which I am confident will be
successfully harnessed and revealed through the vision of Hedi Slimane,”
stated François-Henri Pinault, chairman and chief executive officer of
YSL parent PPR.
Slimane’s “exceptional talent and understanding
of the spirit of Yves Saint Laurent heralds a promising new chapter in
the history of the maison,” echoed YSL ceo Paul Deneve.
Pilati
received a standing ovation for his swan song collection on Monday, and
exits the house at the end of his latest contract.
It is
understood Slimane will show his first new designs for YSL in June for
resort. The format of that presentation could not immediately be
learned.
Although Slimane did limited quantities of small sizes
at Dior Homme, dressing such famous women as Nicole Kidman, Charlotte
Rampling and Madonna, he has never done a women’s collection. Still, he
enjoyed an enthusiastic following across the fashion and cultural
spectrums, his notoriety fueled in part by Karl Lagerfeld, who famously
shed more than 60 pounds to shimmy into Slimane’s stick-to-the-ribs
suits. Rock stars from Mick Jagger to Pete Doherty have belted out songs
decked out in his designs.
Slimane’s return to the fashion
spotlight — and foray into women’s wear — is sure to generate a level of
excitement among press and retailers to rival the buzz that surrounded
Phoebe Philo’s comeback at Celine in 2009 after a three-year sabbatical.
Given Slimane’s status as a men’s wear innovator, he is bound to
electrify that market, too — and perhaps create anxiety among some of
his designer colleagues in men’s.
The appointment signals that
YSL parent PPR — which bills itself as a specialist in multiplying the
scale of small- to midsize brands — wants to ramp up development at YSL,
which trails industry peers such as Chanel and Christian Dior.
It’s
a bold move for PPR and Pinault, who last year took on direct oversight
of the group’s four largest luxury properties: Gucci, Bottega Veneta,
YSL and Balenciaga.
In recent years, the French group frequently
found internal solutions to creative succession, promoting design
underling Frida Giannini to succeed Tom Ford at Gucci in 2006, and Sarah
Burton to take over Alexander McQueen in the wake of the founder’s
suicide in 2010.
Since exiting as Dior Homme’s creative director
in 2007, Slimane has moved to Los Angeles and devoted himself to
photography, even as his skinny tailoring and low-slung jeans continued
to have resonance in the men’s market. His art photos and sculptures
carry four- and five-figure price tags in galleries including Almine
Rech in Paris and Brussels. He has also done commercial photography for
Prada, and editorial work for French Vogue, V and Another Man magazines.
Yet he has often hinted he would return to design.
“I
had enough time to define my style precisely,” he said in an interview
last year with WWD’s magazine Menswear. “It would have been different if
I had left fashion before having defined it. I also never intended to
give up on design, but to take a necessary and healthy distance.…I do
still love design, and somehow have protected my passion for it.”
An art history graduate from the Ecole du Louvre, Slimane emerged
from fashion’s shadows during his first stint at YSL. Hired as an
assistant in fashion marketing at YSL in 1997 and then quickly promoted
to designer, Slimane successfully revved up the label’s Rive Gauche
Homme collection with sleek, androgynous tailoring: leather trenchcoats,
pinch-waist suits and plunging shirts. He was a pioneer in inviting
contemporary artists like Ugo Rondinone to put works in YSL stores,
positing his clothes in a broader cultural context.
Slimane resigned from YSL in 2000 to pursue exclusive negotiations with its parent, then known as Gucci Group, for the launch of his own label. He ended up signing on with luxury rival Dior, embarking on an ambitious project that electrified men’s wear with his glitzy fashion shows and minimalist boutiques.
Slimane resigned from YSL in 2000 to pursue exclusive negotiations with its parent, then known as Gucci Group, for the launch of his own label. He ended up signing on with luxury rival Dior, embarking on an ambitious project that electrified men’s wear with his glitzy fashion shows and minimalist boutiques.
According to
sources, Slimane maintained strong relations with Bernard Arnault,
chairman and ceo of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. Before he parted
ways with Dior Homme in 2007, he had been in talks to have Dior back a
Hedi Slimane fashion house, long a dream of the designer, who was keen
to branch out into women’s wear and other lifestyle categories, such as
home furnishings.
More recently, Slimane figured among candidates
considered to succeed disgraced designer John Galliano as Dior’s next
couturier. Among the sticking points was Slimane’s insistence on
overhauling Dior’s extensive network of global boutiques, done up in
sumptuous fashion by American architect Peter Marino, sources said.
YSL ended last year with 83 stores. At its results presentation last month, PPR said it would open an additional 15 in 2012.
It
could not be learned if YSL plans to give Slimane the resources to
overhaul the entire store network. Some locations retain the underlit,
mostly black design concept from Ford’s tenure, while newer boutiques
reflect versions of the “Opium experience” decor introduced by Pilati in
2008.
To be sure, Slimane’s return to YSL is bound to be
applauded by the old-guard YSL crowd, particularly by Pierre Bergé, who
had given the cold shoulder to Pilati throughout his tenure. The French
are also likely to hail the return of one of its own sons to the design
helm, given their emotional attraction to the founder, whose designs
closely echoed social evolutions.
In Parisian fashion circles,
there’s a strong conviction that Slimane “understands YSL better than
anyone else,” said one industry source.
Slimane, 43, steps into a
healthy business with strong product pillars — and one that market
sources estimate is roughly five times larger than what he oversaw at
Dior Homme.
While reporting 2011 results, Pinault lauded YSL’s “giant step” forward in terms of profitability.
Full-year
sales at YSL advanced 31.4 percent last year to 353.7 million euros, or
$493.2 million, while operating income grew more than fourfold to 40.9
million euros, or $57 million. Dollar figures are converted from euros
at average exchange rates for the periods in question.
Sources
suggested YSL would seek to intensify its rtw business, banking on
Slimane’s keen instincts and tailoring prowess to bring a jolt of
modernity and runway buzz.
While Pilati received uneven reviews
for his rtw, he turned out a string of hit handbags and shoes and helped
make YSL a go-to resource for accessories. Last year leather goods
accounted for 35 percent of revenues, footwear 25 percent, apparel 24
percent and accessories and royalties 16 percent.
While Philo did
a clean sweep of the product range at Celine, it could be a costly
maneuver for YSL to discard such star products from the Pilati era as
the Tribute shoe, a platform sandal that continues to sell briskly five
years after its introduction. Trib Too shoes, frequently worn by
Pinault’s wife, the actress Salma Hayek, and Muse and Muse Two handbags
are also considered key engines of the business.
Slimane’s
challenge will be to entice a new clientele to YSL while holding onto
some of the clientele that helped the company climb out of the red.
Known
for his exacting standards, Slimane could also face challenges
interfacing with YSL’s beauty licensee L’Oréal, which acquired the
business in 2008. Today, YSL Perfumes and Beauty is run out of the
French beauty giant’s Luxury division, which includes designer brands
such as Giorgio Armani Parfums and Cosmetics, Ralph Lauren Fragrances,
Maison Martin Margiela and Stella McCartney.
Fashion designers
have exerted little control over the creation of beauty products for YSL
in recent history. The colors for its last lip-related line, Vernis à
Lèvres, for instance, were created by YSL’s creative director for
makeup, Lloyd Simmonds.
At Dior, which controls its beauty business, Slimane was also given purview over men’s fragrances.
Slimane
is sure to take a hands-on approach building the fashion image of YSL
and, like Lagerfeld does at Chanel, shoot all the campaigns himself.
via WWd
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