YSL Rive Gauche and Hedi Slimane

[whusurdadi]

This may be a stupid question, but do the two have anything to do with each other?
I was trying to find out about YSL RG (Made in Italy), and Hedi Slimane kept popping up on my searches...
Thanks,

 

[SpooPoker]

Hedi Slimane did the YSL Mens line: When Paris-born Hedi Slimane was named director of menswear for Yves Saint Laurent two years ago, one of the first things he learned was that Saint Laurent's original intent in launching the Rive Gauche Homme collection, in 1969, was to provide contemporary clothes for himself and the style leaders of the time. Times, however, have changed - and installing Slimane at the creative helm of Rive Gauche Homme was a brilliant move. Under Slimane's guidance, Rive Gauche Homme has gone back to its roots in order to move on, and fashion insiders can't get enough of it.

 

[rach2jlc]

^Correct; he did a coupla seasons (back before he started at Dior) in 2000-01. He then left and went to Dior and was replaced by Tom Ford. Anyway, Hedi's were really quite amazing collections that will probably be looked back on fifty years as major game-changers for menswear.

The stuff was amazingly made, in wonderful materials, absurdly expensive, and had really odd sizing and fits that nobody could really fit into... but it was really cool stuff. I had a pair of black silk judo pants and some shirts from the collection years ago...

 

[SpooPoker]

+1 The workmanship was ridicuoulous. His things at Dior have cult followings, and now Kris van Assche has the same thing happening.

 

[rach2jlc]

Originally Posted by SpooPoker

+1 The workmanship was ridicuoulous. His things at Dior have cult followings, and now Kris van Assche has the same thing happening.
Yep, IIRC, it caused quite a stir, too, in that after YSL was sold to Gucci Group, Hedi quit to go to Dior and Tom Ford took over. Then, YSL himself snubbed the first collection of his own namesake label to go see Hedi's first Dior show instead. Anyway, thinking back, it was probably those collections that really made me excited over men's fashion, as opposed to just looking for neat "clothes" to wear out. By now... nearly ten years later... I've gotten pretty bored with it or have tried so much stuff by now that it's nice to be reminded of the "thrill" back then of finding a really superlative collection that made you rethink the entire way you could dress.

 

[SpooPoker]

Originally Posted by rach2jlc

it's nice to be reminded of the "thrill" back then of finding a really superlative collection that made you rethink the entire way you could dress.

Not many "fashion" designers do this nowadays. Balenciaga is definitely doing this for womenswear. Rick Owens and Gareth Pugh, (TOTALLY not my personal taste) are having a definite moment for sure. But just like the first Tom Ford collections for men in the late 90s, I hope to be wowed again soon.

 

[rach2jlc]

Originally Posted by SpooPoker

Not many "fashion" designers do this nowadays. Balenciaga is definitely doing this for womenswear. Rick Owens and Gareth Pugh, (TOTALLY not my personal taste) are having a definite moment for sure. But just like the first Tom Ford collections for men in the late 90s, I hope to be wowed again soon.
Me too, but I honestly don't see it happening, because the explosion in menswear has sort of been its own curse for the "wow" factor; just about every avenue has been saturated and if it moves too far trying just to "wow," it risks becoming gimmicky costumes. In 1999,2000, it's really hard to believe how FEW options there were out there... looking at a GQ or other men's fashion mag from the mid to late 1990's is hilarious... it's all Bill Cosby sweaters and pleated khakis. But, as you mentioned, first Ford with Gucci and the sex factor... THEN Hedi came along with something that was... I don't even know how to describe it. Ford seemed to me to create a sexualized, but classy, masculine figure, but Hedi's YSL seasons were totally outside the box... like something a alien villain from Star Trek would wear... and yet it wasn't costumey or gimmickey. Anyway, I look at the collections each season hoping to be wowed; I really liked this Autumn/Winter season from Gianfranco Ferre, but even it didn't give me the "wow" factor.

 

[SpooPoker]

Originally Posted by rach2jlc

In 1999,2000, it's really hard to believe how FEW options there were out there... looking at a GQ or other men's fashion mag from the mid to late 1990's is hilarious... it's all Bill Cosby sweaters and pleated khakis.


What, you dont have Coogi sweaters in your everyday arsenal?

What you said about Tom Ford is correct - but that was the time for that. Pre- 9/11, complete overindulgences of every sort, the clothing sort of had to dictate that mood. Now look at his things - a more somber, still sexy, but somber shadow of what that first Gucci aesthetic was. TF is a genius in my book - and not just the way his clothes fit, but how his style perfectly mimics the mood of fashion, but wrings a little more juice out of it than most of the bunch.

Sorry to get off the OPs topic there, but I can kinda ramble when it comes to that era.

 

[rach2jlc]

Originally Posted by SpooPoker

What, you dont have Coogi sweaters in your everyday arsenal?

What you said about Tom Ford is correct - but that was the time for that. Pre- 9/11, complete overindulgences of every sort, the clothing sort of had to dictate that mood. Now look at his things - a more somber, still sexy, but somber shadow of what that first Gucci aesthetic was. TF is a genius in my book - and not just the way his clothes fit, but how his style perfectly mimics the mood of fashion, but wrings a little more juice out of it than most of the bunch. Sorry to get off the OPs topic there, but I can kinda ramble when it comes to that era.

Yep, really lots of great stuff done at that time; TF for Gucci, the early Prada men's seasons, Helmut Lang, Jil Sander... 1997-2003 really had some amazing stuff for making us think outside the suit, or outside the wool sweater and slacks. Not to say there isn't great stuff being done today... there is... it's just that there is such a huge selection in every way, every pricepoint, etc. that it's just not as exciting to hunt them down anymore.

 

[SpooPoker]

Yes it is - I spend most my nights on eBay!

 

[emmanuel]

Originally Posted by SpooPoker

His things at Dior have cult followings, and now Kris van Assche has the same thing happening.

He does? Everyone I know has been disappointed with KVH at Dior. I know i have been

 

[SpooPoker]

Its not my favorite either. But he is a media darling, and my feeling is that people are buying into the name alone, not the actual quality of clothes.

 

[RJman]

I liked Patrick Lavoix's Autumn 1994 collection at Dior.

 

[HHD]

Originally Posted by rach2jlc

Yep, really lots of great stuff done at that time; TF for Gucci, the early Prada men's seasons, Helmut Lang, Jil Sander... 1997-2003 really had some amazing stuff for making us think outside the suit, or outside the wool sweater and slacks.


+1 - Hedi's work for YSL was really special; along with Jil Sander's first crack at menswear and Helmut Lang in his pomp, the late 90s-early 00s was a fascinating period. I didn't like Tom Ford so much, though I loved late 90s Prada.

 

[LabelKing]

I am always on the lookout for Slimane for YSL so if you have any for sale.