Six take-outs from a rare Hedi Slimane interview

Hedi Slimane, Saint Laurent’s creative director, has given a rare and very in-depth interview to Yahoo. It’s now been three years since Slimane took the helm and, despite his controversial rebranding of the house and contentious early collections, Saint Laurent’s revenues have doubled during his tenure (how’s that for a FU to the haters?). His fusion of YSL’s house codes and his signature aesthetic – influenced by musical and youth subcultures – has proved to be highly profitable.

But Slimane’s transformation of Saint Laurent has encompassed more than just a name change and an indie approach to design. He’s recently reintroduced couture to the house, opening a traditional couture atelier in a historic hotel on the Left Bank, Paris. Now, talking to Dirk Standen, the designer discusses the influence of his mother, his love for Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, his experience of homophobia and the origin of his skinny silhouette. Here’s five things you need to know from this interview.

HIS MOTHER INFLUENCED HIS CHOICE IN CAREER

“My mother had a significant influence. She worked as a seamstress when she came from Italy to Paris, in the early 60s. Her uncle was a tailor, and her aunt taught her how to sew and cut without pattern. My mother was really gifted and used to take me around as a kid to buy fabrics. Making clothes was always around me, but I did not care much for it, until I turned 16 and started to feel the need to design my own clothes.”

“They were bullying me for some time, so that I might feel uncomfortable with myself, insinuating skinny was ‘queer’” – Hedi Slimane

HE HAS FOND MEMORIES OF YVES SAINT LAURENT

“Yves was really shy, and I was way younger and quite impressed by his elegance, aura and kindness. I am also a photographer, and I keep a vibrant souvenir of the portraits of him I missed, stuck forever in my head. I remember Yves’ attitude when we were discussing men’s fashion in the Deco Salon of Avenue Marceau. Yves had a very specific way to hold his cigarette and move, wearing an impeccable double-breasted brown suit from Charvet.”

PIERRE BERGÉ HELPED HIM DEAL WITH THE CRITICISM HE RECEIVED EARLY ON

“I always kept Pierre in mind. How to sail in a middle of a storm and keep your route? Pierre always knew how to do that, and how to stay firm on his principles and not compromise the sincerity of his message, no matter what it takes, even if you are initially misunderstood.”

IN FACT, HIS LOVE FOR BERGÉ RUNS PRETTY DEEP

“It is difficult to express how much I love him and admire him. I would do anything for him. I went back to design for Pierre and Yves only. (He) has always been who I look up to, to give me the courage, the strength I need, and I have constantly in mind the values and principles that I have learned from him. He is certainly a fatherly figure for me, a commanding authority. There is absolutely no one like him, and there will never be anyone else as far as I am concerned.”

“I went back to design for Pierre and Yves only” – Hedi Slimane

BERGÉ AND SAINT LAURENT WERE THE ORIGINAL FASHION POWER COUPLE

“The most beautiful thing about Pierre and Yves is of course the idea that their House was born out of love, the origin of the successful dynamic between the creative mind, and the business mind. Pierre completely invented this idea. Everyone else since Yves and Pierre has tried to imitate the myth of the ‘fashion power couple.’ It was about love and complete loyalty, something like the Spartan army, protecting one another. Nothing you can teach in a business school.”

HIS SKINNY IDEAL OF YOUTH STEMS FROM CHILDHOOD BULLYING

“I was precisely just like any of these guys I photograph, or that walk my shows. Jackets were always a little too big for me. Many in high school, or in my family, were attempting to make me feel I was half a man because I was lean...They were bullying me for some time, so that I might feel uncomfortable with myself, insinuating skinny was ‘queer.’ There was certainly something homophobic and derogative about those remarks.”

“I would turn to my music heroes, and this was comforting. They looked the same and I wanted to do everything to be like them...David Bowie, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Mick Jones, Paul Weller, I felt connected to their allure, aesthetic and style...This is pretty much the origin of everything I did in design after that, a boy or a girl with the same silhouette.”

Head here to read the full interview.