Eye on Fashion
Musical chairs at Europe's big fashion houses: Where will Raf Simons, HediSlimane & Stefano Pilati land?
Glamour magazine came up with this flowchart to try to explain where Raf Simons,Hedi Slimane and Stefano Pilati might end up.glamour.com
Raf Simons acknowledge the crowd after his final runway show for Jil Sander inMilan last week.Photo by Venturelli/WireImage
Hedi Slimane is rumored to be headed to Yves Saint Laurent following theannouncement that Stefano Pilati is leaving as creative director.
As the fall/winter 2012 ready-to-wear presentations in Milan are coming to a close – and the ones in Paris are just about to begin – it looks like more than one of the industry’s biggest design houses will be changing creative hands.
It all started back in February of last year, when creative director John Galliano was fired from Dior after multiple accusations of making anti-Semitic comments in public.
Since then, the fashion press has been abuzz about who his replacement would be. For a while, Marc Jacobs was considered to be the top contender. Phoebe Philo, currently the creative director of Céline, and Alexander Wang, one of New York’s “it” designers, were also rumored to be potential contenders.
With Slimane at Yves Saint Laurent, Simons at Dior and Sander back at her eponymous label, could we be looking at the next monumental era in fashion?
In December, media outlets started reporting that the avant-garde and highly regarded Belgian designer Raf Simons was in talks with Dior. Both his men’s and women’s collections at Jil Sander have been critically acclaimed, so it seemed like a logical choice.
Earlier this week, only days before the Jil Sander women’s ready-to-wear show in Milan, Japanese fashion conglomerate Onward Holdings, which owns the German house, announced that Sander would return as creative director and Simons would be departing. The timing seems right for Simons to head to Dior, but an official announcement has yet to be made.
Things got even more complicated today when Yves Saint Laurent announced that Stefano Pilati will step down as creative director. His tenure at the legendary courtier has been a turbulent one, with Saint Laurent’s life and business partner Pierre Bergé criticizing the direction Pilati has taken the line. However, several of Pilati’s collections have been extremely well received, and sales have increased under his reign.
So who’s going to YSL? Right now, all eyes are on Hedi Slimane, who is most well known for his work at Dior Homme. Since his departure from the label in 2007, he has lived in Los Angeles and focused on his work as a photographer. Dedicated fans are ecstatic about the possibility of his return to the design world.
Essentially, it looks like some of the industry’s biggest names are playing musical chairs right now.
I’m a huge Simons fan, and I would be ecstatic to see him at Dior. I don’t hesitate to praise him as one of the most brilliant artists of our time. His approach has evolved in his time at Jil Sander, but he’s still a minimalist with a very dark edge.
During his tenure at Dior Homme, Slimane pioneered the ultra slim silhouette for menswear that still prevails in both the high and low spheres of the marketplace. Like Simons, he’s known for taking a dark, minimalistic approach to all of his work – including his photography.
With Slimane at Yves Saint Laurent, Simons at Dior and Sander back at her eponymous label, could we be looking at the next monumental era in fashion? The three of them have an unparalleled ability to create magnificent clothes that are about beautiful shapes and textures as opposed to gaudy attention-grabbers, and that’s something I can get behind as a dominant movement for years to come.
Yet, there would still be some holes in the great courtier seating chart. Where will Stefano Pilati go? And if Simons goes to Dior, will he take Dior Homme from Kris Van Asche as well? Or maybe Simons will end up at YSL instead of Dior?
Maybe everyone’s wrong and best-buddies Philo and Kanye West will be the next Armani and Versace as opposed to Slimane and Simons. (Just kidding, that’s not going to happen. At least I hope it won’t).
Expect the folks at Dior to make an announcement in the days following their ready-to-wear show in Paris on Friday.
