Beverly Hills and a Rolls: The Charmed LA Life of Hedi Slimane

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When YSL creative director Hedi Slimane departed Paris to reside permanently in Los Angeles, the response from the fashion press was...confused. After all, Paris is one of the great fashion capitals of the world and the birthplace of YSL. LA doesn't even have an official sponsor for its Fashion Week, and our industry is much smaller (and younger) than in Europe. But Slimane has fallen in love with Los Angeles.

In 2007, Slimane took a break from designing to spend time in our city shooting local artists and musicians. He purchased a house. At the time, he told WWD that, "The sense of expansion [and] the possibilities offered to artists to experiment with space [in LA], remind me of Berlin."

Last year he returned to designing in Paris, but the pull of Los Angeles must have been too much. In June he announced the decision to return, and will continue his work to rebrand YSL from his studio here. As Vanity Fair reports, in LA Slimane lives in a "60s Modern house in Beverly Hills and tools around town in a vintage 1980s black Rolls-Royce." Sounds pretty sweet. Though we harbor no illusions that the designer will help raise the profile of LA's fashion industry, or will even participate in our city's fashion events (he'll be showing his collection in Paris in September), it's definitely a coup to have him here.
· Rebooting YSL [Vanity Fair]
· Hedi Slimane's Love Letter to Cali [Racked]
· Hedi Slimane Hearts L.A. Artists [Racked]