Hedi returns to YSL!

Hedi Slimane has been named the new creative director of Yves Saint Laurent. The designer, who helmed the menswear division of the label from 1997 to 2000 before taking over at Dior Homme, will have "total creative responsibility for the brand image and all its collections" PPR chairman François-Henri Pinault said in a statement today.

"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," said Pinault, chairman and chief executive officer of PPR - which controls YSL along with Gucci, Balenciaga and Bottega Veneta amongst others.

The appointment will see Slimane create his first womenswear collection, which fashion watchers will wait with bated breath for when his first offering debuts at the pre-collections' launch in June. Slimane is best known for transforming the silhouette of menswear whilst at Dior Homme, introducing a super-skinny silhouette worn by rock stars including Pete Doherty, and prompting Chanel creative director Karl Lagerfeld to lose more than 90 lbs in order that he could wear it.
Slimane's "creative control" is likely to extend to shooting the campaigns - the main focus of his career in the five years since he left Dior Homme - and may possibly include a redesign of the stores and input into YSL's lucrative make-up and fragrance developments, the latter of which he controlled whilst at Dior Homme.

Slimane was a favourite with the label's founder Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergé, who made no secret of his lack of support for Slimane's predecessor, Stefano Pilati - who took his final YSL bow at the show in Paris yesterday.

(Source: Vogue UK)