I recently won a pair of Hedi Slimane-era Yves Saint Laurent jeans on eBay (post to come) and I thought it would be fitting do a post on what many consider to be the best menswear designer of our time in his developing years, creating some of his best work. I like to think of Hedi's time at YSL to be perhaps the only time in the history of menswear that a designer created true "haute couture" pieces for men. By definition this could be applied to any time a man has a custom made piece of clothing crafted for him (usually a suit or a shirt), however, in a more refined and relevant sense the collections Hedi created channelled a formal yet luxurious elegance onto the runways. Shrouded in a mysterious romanticism, the pieces were simultaneously modern, even futuristic, while being very traditional as well, something which no designer has ever executed like Hedi did in his more formative years. The serious yet intelligent image, an androgynous precursor to the designer's latter work, featured slim trousers and cutting edge tailoring, which set Hedi's work apart from his counterparts. The clothing was adopted by many fashion insiders, which, along with Gucci's buyout of YSL and consequent instillation of Tom Ford, catapulted Hedi to stardom and Christian Dior to revitalize its menswear line.
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photos courtesy of Hedi Slimane and firstview
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