Profile: designer and photographer Edie Sliman
It is hard to believe that the former creative director of Dior Homme Edie Slimane has not been engaged in the creation of clothing for more than four years. While fans of his work bought up (and continue to do) the old Dior Homme collections on eBay, he released many books, participated in several exhibitions, collaborated with a huge number of magazines and celebrities, designed covers for Lady Gaga albums and Daft Punk bands and Phoenix. And although Edie Sliman, of course, took place as a photographer, the fashion industry is waiting for his return as a designer. Judging by the recent interview with the publication of Prestige Hong Kong, it’s not long to wait.
Fashion
In fact, Edie Sliman’s career began with the fact that in 1997, Pierre Berger, a colleague and partner of Yves Saint Laurent, suggested to the designer to revive the YSL Rive Gauche Homme men's line. What Sliman did, however, without overwhelming success. After a couple of years, the designer leaves the Yves Saint Laurent team, while maintaining friendly relations with Yves Saint Laurent himself (“He certainly touched me,” Eddie says after many years.) And with Pierre Berge. However, the rumors that Slimane will return as a creative director of Yves Saint Laurent and replace the current one, Stefano Pilati, still go.
It is known that before Eddie Sliman’s landmark parish in Dior Homme, he received offers to lead the Jil Sander brand, at that time owned by the Prada Group, and to establish his own from the Gucci Group. But the designer agrees to the Christian Dior offer to become the creative director of the men's line of the fashion house. And after the first FW 2001 show, real hysteria begins: for the next few years, Edie Slimane has predetermined what the ideal male silhouette should be.
In an interview with Style.com, the designer explained that the birth of his trademark silhouette was due to the fact that he, thin and narrow-shouldered, walked only like this: “When my career at Yves Saint Laurent came to an end, I had time to practice my own style. To be honest When I started working at Dior Homme, I started sewing what was right for me. I stubbornly repeated this silhouette from year to year. Contrary to the industry, I did what I thought was right. I never wanted to indulge or like someone - so i could follow my convictions i heard so much unflattering about my proportions, about how absurd and unsuccessful my skinny jeans will be. I was accused of not understanding anything of masculinity, but I didn't care. "
The androgynous image existed long before Edie, but it was he who, at the beginning of the 2000s, made a cult of him. Tight trousers and jeans, leather jackets and fitted Dior Homme jackets were shown on the catwalk not only by professional models, but also by designer's friends, and simple young men, whom Slimann accidentally found on the street: “Working time at Dior Homme was incredibly fruitful. energetic and talented people of my era. I dressed them, collaborated with them, took pictures of them. "
Edie Sliman is probably like no other designer who is close to music. Friendship with musicians leaves an imprint on everything he does: “One more thing that I am accused of is that I am overly passionate about music. And I still think that there is no fashion without music. Fashion = music + young + sex. I lived in London at the time when the indie scene was gaining popularity. We didn’t have the right clothes, and I began to sew for myself and my friends. " The designer still communicates with Pete Doherty, members of the These New Puritans, The Horrors groups and many others.
Despite an unprecedented interest in the male line, in 2007 Edie Sliman left Dior's house. In order not to lose the designer, the LVMH conglomerate (which owns the fashion house) invites him to create his own brand. Semi-annual negotiations do not lead to anything, and Edi Slimane makes an official statement on his website: "I don’t want to work without creative freedom, trade my name and have no control over my own brand." From this point on Edie Sliman does not design clothes. His hobby - photography - becomes his main job.
The photo
According to Sliman, he never stopped practicing fashion after leaving Dior Homme, supervising exhibitions, releasing albums of his works and continuing to photograph for magazines (Vanity Fair, Dazed & Confused and many others).
“In fact, there is not much difference between clothing design and photography, as many people used to think. I believe that we all work on the same plane. And when photographing for magazines, I somehow influence fashion and enrich it with my ideas,” says designer in his interview Style.com.
His blog Hedi Slimane Diary, consisting solely of photographs, Edie Sliman has been since 1999. There are pictures of teenagers (with whom Sliman again meets on the street), musical groups and objects Eddie surrounds, as well as still pictures that he does for magazines (for example, photos of actor Rory Kalkin who did not get May issue Dazed & Confused).
The most recent book by Edie Sliman - four-volume almanac Hedi Slimane: Anthology of a Decade 2000-2010 - was published recently. "This book is about the last decade, about how our descendants will see it. The golden era for the indie scene," says the designer in an interview with Vogue.
AlbumsEdie Slimane: |
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Intermission 1 2002
7L 2003
The Stage 2004
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London Birth of a Cult 2006
Courtney Love by Hedi Silmane: Portrait of a Performer 2007
Hedi Slimane 2011
Anthology of a Decade 2011While working on the book, Edie curated exhibitions in Brussels and Paris, in which Aaron Young, John Baldessari, Ed Rushey, and designer’s longtime director Gus Van Sant participated. With the latter, they worked on the Young American project - a series of portraits of young Americans.
Rumors about the return of Slimane to the creation of clothing did not subside ever. But now Edi himself began to speak openly about his new design project.
“I miss the fabrics, the atelier and the manual labor. Models and clothes surround me now, but only on the set,” Eddie Slimane admits to the Hong Kong Prestige publication. I am quite enterprising and I think about the commercial side of things. I need to be sure that I have everything so that my new design project is durable. "