Saint Laurent, Hedi Slimane, Jodi Foster and Taxi Driver

Hedi Slimane was obviously channeling Jodi Foster's runaway/prostitute in Taxi Driver for Saint Laurent Spring 2015.  I am sure it was meant to cause quite le scandale... 

xo, Juliana

Mr Cool Ain't So Cool After All: Hedi Slimane for Saint Laurent

I think one of the least rock and roll, least outsider, least shocking (because it is so corporate) attitudes has to be the reaction of Saint Laurent, and most likely and more specifically, Hedi Slimane, to the slyly fabulous and tongue in cheek tee by Reason: Aint Laurent without Yves.

The t-shirts had been purchased by Sarah Andelman for Colette in Paris and it appears Saint Laurent and Slimane were none too happy about this.  Colette agreed to immediately pull the tees from their website but continued to sell them at the store.  Saint Laurent accused Colette of selling fraudulent merchandise and of damaging the YSL brand.

Saint Laurent then pulled the entire mens and womens collection from the store and has even gone as far to cancel an event at Colette for the magazine, Document, because one of the covers was photographed by Mr. Slimane.

Whoa Hedi!  Dost thou take thyself too seriously?!  

Hedi Slimane approved this image.  Seriously.  Journalists were actually given ten approved images of Slimane to use...

Hedi Slimane + Saint Laurent = Forever 21

Hedi Slimane for Saint Laurent:

Forever 21:

Hedi Slimane for Saint Laurent:

Forever 21:

add a little more Forever 21:

and a little more Forever 21:

Hedi Slimane for Saint Laurent:

Forever 21:

Et voilá!  There we have Hedi Slimane + Saint Laurent = Forever 21

Let's just hope it won't be forever...

My Heart Goes Boom Boom Boom: Paris Fashion Week Spring 2013. Part One.

My heart was all aflutter at a particularly outstanding fashion week in Paris.  This is part one in a series I will be doing on PFW Spring 2013. 

There were so many strong shows in Paris for the spring and then there was Hedi Slimane for Saint Laurent Paris.  Hear ye, hear ye, that is the way to say it people.  If you are referring to the house of YSL, it is Yves Saint Laurent.  Do not speak about or write about Saint Laurent Paris.  Got it?  Got questions?  Please refer to the PR team at Yves Saint Laurent or is it the PR team for Saint Laurent by Hedi Slimane?  Whoa!  Did I forget a Paris in there?!  Who knows!  

I thought the show was a huge disappointment.  I heard good things about the unseen resort collection by Slimane but I thought this looked like a watered down version of Saint Larent's greatest hits for H & M.  Perhaps for a storied house like YSL, it needs to look forward, not backward.  Reference the vocabulary of YSL but make it new, make it fresh, invent a new language.  And one that we all want to speak.  

And speaking of, I thought it was all very sad about the Cathy Horyn/ Hedi Slimane kerfluffle.  A big design house like Yves Saint Laurent which voraciously needs six collections a year, bags, accessories - it is a lot.  A designer will not only need to be enormously talented but also to have a big backbone.  It is not name calling (as Mr. Slimane resorted to on his Twitter account about Ms. Horyn) but criticism and you have to be able to take it.  Maybe you won't agree with it, maybe you can learn something from it but take it like a gentleman.   Everyone has a job to do.

Look at Mr. Saint Laurent's enormously renowned - and scandalous - Forties Collection in the spring/summer of 1971.  People were furious, outraged, scandalized.  But who had the last laugh?!

"I did my collection as a kind of humorous protest (against the gypsy look), only everyone took it seriously.  Then I became more sure of myself when I returned to my true style."  Yves Saint Laurent

Spring 1971 haute couture "Forties" collection by Yves Saint Laurent at the Denver Art Museum