Hedi Slimane

HEDI SLIMANE (pronounced with a silent "h" - Edi Sli-man), is a French-born, Italian-Tunisian designer and photographer, best known for changing the silhouette of men's fashion to super-skinny during his time at Dior Homme. Since leaving Dior, he has worked as a photographer, famously documenting British rock star Pete Doherty and the Berlin club scene. He was also the man who prompted Karl Lagerfeld to lose almost 90 lbs in weight in order that the Chanel designer could buy his clothes.

• Born in Paris in 1968 to an Italian mother and a Tunisian father, Slimane learned the art of photography before he even reached his teens and began making his own clothes at age 16.
• After studying History of Art at the Ecole du Louvre, Slimane began working with fashion consultant Jean-Jacques Picart in 1992 on an exhibition celebrating the centenary of Louis Vuitton's iconic monogram. The project invited seven fashion designers - Azzedine Alaia, Helmut Lang, Sybilla, Manolo Blahnik, Isaac Mizrahi, Romeo Gigli and Vivienne Westwood - to reinterpret the monogram canvas in celebration of its longevity - and is widely considered to be Vuitton's first step towards fashion, before the appointment of ready-to-wear creative director Marc Jacobs in 1998.
• After completing his work there in 1995, Slimane was named menswear director at Yves Saint Laurent in 1996, before being made the men's artistic director the following year. Yves Saint Laurent himself attended his debut menswear show and applauded enthusiastically from the front row.
• After presenting the Black Tie collection for

autumn/winter 2000-2001 in January 2000 - in which he introduced

his new skinny silhouette - Slimane left YSL; declined the creative

directorship at Jil Sander following the founder's departure; and

accepted a role at the helm of Christian Dior's men's line.

• In November 2000, Karl Lagerfeld decided to lose weight in

order that he could adopt Slimane's new skinny silhouette. "Until

then, I had got along fine with my excess weight and I had no

health problems, or - which would be worse - emotional problems,

but I suddenly wanted to wear clothes designed by Hedi Slimane, who

used to work for Saint Laurent and now creates the Dior Homme

collections," Lagerfeld told the Telegraph. "But these

fashions, modelled by very, very slim boys, required me to lose at

least six of my 16 stone." The designer lost more than 90 lbs over

the course of the year, and wore Slimane's designs

faithfully the younger designer's time at Dior.

• In June 2001, Slimane headed up the launch of Dior Homme's first fragrance under his creative control - named Higher. He designed the packaging and worked with Richard Avedon on the advertising campaign to ensure all elements tallied with his new vision for the Dior man.
• In 2002, Slimane became the first menswear designer to be named the CFDA International Designer of the year, presented by Slimane fan David Bowie.
• Slimane soon became associated with musicians - including Mick

Jagger, Jack White, The Libertines, Franz Ferdinand and The Kills -

creating outfits for them to wear on stage. He also commissioned

young bands, particularly new British groups, to create original

soundtracks for the Dior Homme catwalk shows. Razorlight's *In

The Morning* was composed especially for the autumn/winter

2005-06 show.

• During his time at Dior Homme, Slimane maintained his interest

in photography and published several books - including

Berlin, featuring his photographs of the German club

scene; Stage, about the rock revival; and *London Birth

of a Cult*, about the then-unknown rock star Pete Doherty

• in the early Noughties. Pete Doherty and other British

bands including The Paddingtons and The Others performed at

Slimane's birthday party in July 2005.

• Slimane's online photographic blog, The Diary,

launched in 2006 - featuring his pictures of unknown cool kids as

well as some of the music world's biggest stars.

• In the summer of 2006, Slimane chose not renew his contract at Dior Homme after negotiations with the French house surrounding his eponymous label broke down. Dior proposed to fund Slimane's own collections but the designer was reportedly reluctant to lose control of his name. He was succeeded by Kris Van Assche in March 2007.
• In March 2011, following John Galliano's dismissal from

Christian Dior, Slimane was linked with the job of new Dior

creative director. Later the same month, the Guardian

implied in an interview with Slimane that he had ruled out

returning to Dior, but his representatives told us at the time that

that was not the case. "The article in

the Guardian is obviously, and certainly

deliberately, misleading," a spokeswoman said. "The interview was

clearly done one day before the event [Galliano's arrest] in Paris

and not after. It is therefore unrelated, and sadly

presumptuous. The Guardian wanted obviously to

associate and juxtapose the two, after the Dior events, by

postponing the article. Hedi Slimane obviously never talked about -

or even implied - Christian Dior, or any other luxury house in

particular."

• In 2011, Slimane published *Anthology of a

Decade;* a book in four volumes about the past ten years

in the four cities - Paris, Berlin, London, and LA - where Slimane

he had spent most time.

• In early 2012, Slimane was again linked with two of his former employers - Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent - both of whom were seeking a new creative director following the departures of Galliano and (almost exactly a year later), Stefano Pilati, respectively.
• In March 2012, Slimane was officially appointed creative director at Yves Saint Laurent, changing the label's name in June 2012 to Saint Laurent Paris.