Hedi Slimane
Artistic, Creative and Image Director, Céline
The accomplished French designer and photographer transformed menswear at Dior Homme, revitalised Saint Laurent and now helms creative direction at Céline.
Few careers have been so closely monitored, or as widely discussed in recent years, as Hedi Slimane’s. The designer joined the French luxury house in February 2018, as its artistic, creative and image director, making his debut expanding the label’s offering into menswear, couture and fragrance collections, debute dat the Spring/Summer 19 Paris fashion week.
The Frenchman began his career in the 1990s as an assistant in fashion marketing at Yves Saint Laurent . In 1996 Pierre Bergé installed Slimane in the position of ready-to-wear director of men's collections at Yves Saint Laurent. (Slimane would later become artistic director of the line.) After the ‘Black Tie’ collection for Autumn/Winter 2000, which foreshadowed the advent of Slimane's skinny silhouette, Slimane chose to leave Yves Saint Laurent and declined an offer to take up the creative directorship at Jil Sander as well.
Immediately after leaving Yves Saint Laurent, Slimane moved to Berlin, where he took up a residency at the Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art between 2000 and 2002. Slimane also released his first photography book, “Berlin” — a selection of black and white photographs — published by Karl Lagerfeld ’s publishing arm, Édition 7L, which is a division of the German house Steidl.
In 2000 he took up the position of creative director for Dior Homme, during which he received immediate success and popularised the skinny silhouette in menswear. In April 2002, Slimane was the first menswear designer to receive the CFDA International Designer award. David Bowie, whom Slimane dressed for his tours, presented the designer with the award.
Slimane left Dior in 2007 to focus on photographic projects but returned to Yves Saint Laurent in 2012 as creative director, overseeing the brand’s womenswear and menswear collections. By his request, the ready-to-wear lines were rebranded as Saint Laurent and the design studio was partially relocated to LA, a scene that has permeated Slimane’s designs for the house.
During his four years at Saint Laurent, Slimane divided opinion, but his youth culture-driven collections, which are closely tied to the music scene, proved to be commercially successful. According to Sanford C. Bernstein, from 2012 to 2014, Saint Laurent revenues grew more than 20 percent each year, outperforming the overall market for luxury goods despite having a significantly smaller retail network — 142 stores — than larger houses like Louis Vuitton or Gucci. In April 2016, Kering announced in a statement that Slimane would not be renewing his contract with Saint Laurent.
Slimane roused mixed reactions for his personal incarnation of Celine – some deifying the designer and praising his return, while others heavily reprimanded the Laurent-ification of Celine, with as Slimane imposed his signature slender style onto the French brand. Under Slimane’s watch, Céline has undergone a number of rebranding efforts: it dropped its accent aigu and “Paris” under the name inspired by its original 1960s design, and the flagship store in Miami was revamped, among other store fleet. The luxury brand also announced in late 2018, that its menswear division would soon produce standalone stores for the Spring/Summer 2019 season. One of the first glimpses into Slimane’s Céline came from Lady Gaga, who was gifted a handbag and debuted it in Paris.
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What is The BoF 500?
The people shaping the global fashion industry, curated by the editors of The Business of Fashion, based on nominations and on-the-ground intelligence from around the world.
ExploreWhat is The BoF 500?
The people shaping the global fashion industry, curated by the editors of The Business of Fashion, based on nominations and on-the-ground intelligence from around the world.
ExploreThe Other Side of Hedi Slimane
The designer has always been an arch perfectionist, a quality that has been central to his success but which clashes with the demands on creative directors today, writes Imran Amed.
What Is It About Celine Beauty?
News of the luxury house expanding into cosmetics had fashion and beauty lovers buzzing about the latest extension of Hedi Slimane’s expanding universe.
How Hedi Slimane Doubled Celine Sales
The brand, which has surpassed €2 billion in annual revenue, celebrated its momentum with a fashion show-meets-concert in Los Angeles, where the biggest rock star was arguably the designer.
The Secrets to Kering’s Fashion Success
The group’s focus on luxury fashion has paid off, thanks to bets on bold creativity and the designer, CEO and merchandiser ‘tripods’ it typically installs at its brands, writes Luca Solca.
Is Hedi Slimane’s Celine Working?
LVMH’s mission to turn Celine into a multi-billion dollar business got off to a rocky start, but there are signs the brand may be turning a corner.
Olding Is the New Blanding: Luxury Brands Look Back to Get Ahead
After an era of streamlined logos and nearly constant drops of Instagrammable merchandise, European fashion houses are reasserting brand signatures from their pasts to signal lasting value in an uncertain market.
At Celine, Hedi Slimane’s ‘Portrait of a Generation’
The designer’s latest ode to youth lacked vitality. Take away the Celine logos and it could have been anything, but there was plenty of tempting merchandise, writes Angelo Flaccavento.
Anthony Vaccarello Reveals Collaboration with Helmut Lang
In an exclusive interview with Tim Blanks, Saint Laurent Creative Director Anthony Vaccarello reveals the thinking behind his new collaboration with elusive former fashion designer Helmut Lang and his vision for a post-pandemic fashion industry.
Anthony Vaccarello Reveals Collaboration with Helmut Lang
In an exclusive interview with Tim Blanks, Saint Laurent Creative Director Anthony Vaccarello reveals the thinking behind his new collaboration with elusive former fashion designer Helmut Lang and his vision for a post-pandemic fashion industry.
Tim Blanks’ Top Fashion Shows of All-Time: Tom Ford's Yves Saint Laurent Finale, March 7, 2004
BoF's editor-at-large travels back to a runway that left him misty-eyed. Ford may have claimed he’d blocked out his Saint Laurent years, but he also acknowledged some of his best collections were there. And this was his best.
Tim Blanks’ Top Fashion Shows of All-Time: Tom Ford's Yves Saint Laurent Finale, March 7, 2004
BoF's editor-at-large travels back to a runway that left him misty-eyed. Ford may have claimed he’d blocked out his Saint Laurent years, but he also acknowledged some of his best collections were there. And this was his best.
Is Dior Catching Up With Chanel?
Today, as Dior stages a destination runway show in Italy, a new report shows the LVMH-owned brand's finances inching closer to those of its oldest rival, fashion-and-beauty juggernaut Chanel.