Hedi Slimane: Control Freak or Just Plain Stupid? (Updated)

Posted on June 22, 2012 by Alexandra
Yves Saint Laurent, Hedi Slimane, Pierre Berge

Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge. Thank god Saint Laurent has passed, as Sliman's latest move would have been the ultimate insult.

Yves Saint Laurent must be turning in his grave right now, and Pierre Berge will likely be in a grave soon, as a result of the announcement that Yves Saint Laurent is going to become just Saint Laurent. Hedi Slimane is clearly not interested in quietly taking over there and continuing the legacy of this legendary designer. His plans obviously involve making his mark loud and clear, including this ridiculous name change. This reminds me of Alexander McQueen’s takeover at Givenchy, when he said that he had no respect for the founding designer.

Yves Saint Laurent, Hedi Slimane, Pierre Berge

I somehow doubt that Slimane will ever be able to compete with YSL, who was the pioneer of ready to wear, and the women's pant suit (Le Smoking, see above.)

The difference is, McQueen turned out to be a quite a good designer. Slimane, on the other hand, makes slim suits and takes repetitive rock’n'roll style fashion photos. I’m not a fan of Slimane, and I was not pleased when I heard he was replacing Pilati, so this recent news confirms my thoughts that this is a very big mistake.

Why would Slimane change the name of the brand? And why would he choose to design the collections from a studio in Los Angeles? Is he a control freak, that insists everything must be done his (bizarre) way? Or is he just plain stupid? Someone on Twitter compared moving the YSL design studios to LA to moving Armani to Atlanta, which sounds about right.

Yves Saint Laurent, Hedi Slimane, Pierre Berge

I feel that we can now officially call Hedi Slimane a douchebag.

While I understand that any designer newly appointed to direct a legendary brand will want to find a way to make it “theirs,” this has gone too far. The media is up in arms, and it will take a mighty impressive debut collection from him to get them back on side. I don’t think he has it in him. I think this is going to be an epic fail, and in less than two years, YSL will become YSL once again, and will be back in the hands of a non-control freak, non-stupid designer who will respect the history of the brand.

If Slimane is so desperate to stay in LA, perhaps he should consider a job at Juicy Couture?

p.s. I shall take this moment to thank the fashion gods that Slimane was not appointed creative director at Dior, as rumours suggested. What would he have done? Renamed it “Di” and moved the design offices to Birmingham?

Image sources: YSL and Pierre Berge, Le Smoking, and Hedi Slimane.

UPDATE

According to this article by The Cut, Pierre Berge is apparently happy about the changes Hedi Slimane is making. But judging by the article and his tone, he sounds like a fairweather supporter, I’m guessing he will “hate” it all in a  few months.

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  • Jasper

    no way..

  • Roshh Ko

    YSL to SLP? 

    I mean, really? If that’s the case, I think the next step is to store his first collection at McDonalds. By the way, it’s hilarious to change the name of the label to Saint Laurent PARIS (!!!) when you actually move the studio to Los Angeles. :D

  • Jasper

    YA. no way this is going to happen, they NEED that “Y”. i mean.. drop the name to JUST YVES if anything lol

  • Kris

    Do you like anything anyone does?

    All you do on your blog is trash everyone and everything

  • alexandrasuhnerisenberg

    Yes, I like a lot of things. In my past ten blog posts, I’ve only trashed “things” twice, Hedi Slimane, and the Olsen twins. And I’ve also made fun of Old Navy, but that’s not trashing. I’ve talked about quite a lot of brands I like. Are you actually reading my blog, or just seeing what you want to see?

  • Roshh Ko

    to the UPDATE: You know, if they paid me 100,000 dollars I would absolutely love Slimane’s decision :) )

    * and it’s all Slimane’s decision, based on the article. If he wants so badly to be the boss, why not have his own womenswear line?

  • Brett2029

    It’s sad to see such an iconic brad being defaced by “fresh talent”, and in regards to him moving his studio to Los Angeles that’s even worse. Doesn’t he know his YSL history????? Paris to YSL is like the Dalai Lama to Tibet! I can only imagine the celebrity encrusted atrocities that will be “rock’n rolling” down the runway. Sad very sad. 

  • alexandrasuhnerisenberg

    Interesting. I wonder if he will change his mind? 

  • venusRISNG

    Abuse of power and total disrespect for not only a founding designer, but a great fashion revolutionary.

    Not the way I wanted to start my day, you (Slimane) little douchebag, ego jerk-off, you.

  • venusRISNG

    Second of all, from a branding perspective I completely fail to follow his logic. Also cant help but suspect that hes been through several anger management / abuser programs, is currently on probation and/or has a history of violence. Sorry. 

  • Jill

    I would love to know what the YSL trademark lawyers who just argued the case Louboutin brought against the company re the use of red soles thinks of them removing the “Y” in YSL. What a terrible decision for the brand and seriously, the use of the letter “Y” in their bags, even as part of the hardware, makes me agree with you that this is a terrible mistake and one they will regret. The lawyers will have to refile, in every class of goods and services, on trademark registers around the world, the name “Saint Laurent” and oh won’t that be a mighty expensive headache and one that might not necessarily go their way. I already missed Stefano Pilati and now I miss him even more.

  • lemon

    By the Hedi Slimane IS the one who influenced the name change at Chrsitian Dior to JUST Dior. They just didn’t make an announcement about it, they did it gradually and now everyone just refers to it as Dior. Saint Laurent is the original name. The YSL logs stays. No one says Pierre Balmain, Coco Chanel, Christian Dior.
    WELCOME SAINT LAURENT. Pierre Berge and Hedi are quite close and he believes he is the only one to bring it back to the true Saint Laurent days. Yves Saint Laurent is quite happy with the change.

  • alexandrasuhnerisenberg

    Dior is still refereed to as Christian Dior in many cases (ex. couture.) And it is one thing to change the name, another to move the design studios to LA. It is egotistical and ridiculous.

  • derek

    Moving the studio to LA is not akin to moving Armani to Atlanta. It’s more akin to moving to Berlin. LA is a capital of contemporary art, music, film, and youth subculture  and is more “on pulse” of the times than Paris. Slimane should find lots of inspiration. 

    Also, Hollywood was the inception of the American high fashion, and is the studio for Tom Ford, Rodarte, and Band of Outsiders. Galliano is also moving there. Let’s give LA a little more credit than a worn-out stereotype of Juicy Couture. 

  • alexandrasuhnerisenberg

    Ok, I agree that LA is a great city and there are a lot of things going on there. However, it is still extremely wrong to take a brand whose history and foundations lay in Paris, and move its creative studios to LA. The ironic thing is, he has changed the name to “Saint Laurent Paris” but is moving it to LA. It is wrong.

  • Zinho

    Didn’t Saint Laurent do the same thing when he became head designer at Dior? He made a LOT more changes to Dior than anything Slimane could do to Saint Laurent.
    He had hater then like you are haters now.
    Let him do his thing and talk afterwards.

  • alexandrasuhnerisenberg

    He may have made changes, but he certainly did not move the design studio to a city best know for velour tracksuits, plastic surgery, and surfwear. Slimane’s accomplishments so far include a skinny suit which he milked for years, some really bad band photography, and some even worse “rock” fashion photography, so I don’t think he is suited to take the reigns at YSL. But yes, I am anticipating his first collection and look forward to seeing what he will do.