Hedi Slimane

From February 2018 to October 2024, Slimane was the creative, artistic and image director of Celine.

Slimane was born in the 11th arrondissement of Paris and grew up in the 19th arrondissement. His father was Tunisian and an accountant, and his mother was Italian and a seamstress. Two of his uncles were tailors. In his youth, he and his mother made clothes together: Slimane sketched designs, the two would shop for fabrics and complete fittings, and his mother would cut and sew them. He considered finding a career in the fashion industry although finding it too competitive; instead, he studied political science and pursued a career in journalism. At 11, he discovered photography, received his first camera and learned black and white darkroom printing. He studied art history at the École du Louvre and completed a tailor apprenticeship at a men's designer house.

Slimane has no formal training in fashion. Early in his career, he worked for designer José Lévy. From 1992 to 1995, he assisted fashion consultant and press agent Jean-Jacques Picart on the centenary project for the Louis Vuitton monogram canvas. Picart introduced Slimane to Pierre Bergé, who hired him in 1996 as ready-to-wear director of men's collections at Yves Saint Laurent. Slimane later became artistic director. When he started, there were only a handful of men's designs at the house dating from Saint Laurent's early years. One report describes his designs' sex appeal as "not based on over-the-top embellishment... rather, it comes from the same honest principles that have always driven fashion: cut, proportion and silhouette." After the Black Tie collection for autumn-winter 2000–01, which introduced Slimane's signature silhouette and "skinny" aesthetic, he left YSL. He declined an offer of creative directorship at Jil Sander and accepted the position of creative director for menswear at Christian Dior. In June 2001, he oversaw the launch of Dior Homme's first fragrance under his creative control, named Higher. He designed the packaging and worked with Richard Avedon on the advertising campaign. In April 2002, Slimane became the first menswear designer to receive the CFDA award for International Designer. David Bowie, whom Slimane dressed for his tours, presented the award. Brad Pitt had Slimane create his wedding suit for his marriage to Jennifer Aniston. Although he never designed a womenswear collection, he dressed female celebrities including Madonna and Nicole Kidman during his tenure at Dior. He also created stagewear for groups including the Libertines, Daft Punk, Franz Ferdinand, and the Kills, and artists including Mick Jagger, Beck, and Jack White. Slimane commissioned original soundtracks for his Dior Homme runway shows from artists including Beck, Readymade FC (Jean-Philippe Verdin), Phoenix, The Rakes, and Razorlight. The track "In the Morning" was composed by Razorlight for the Dior Homme show. Readymade FC composed "F Me" (2001–2002) and "Flexion" (2002–2003). These New Puritans composed "Navigate, Navigate" for the final Dior Homme show in January 2007. In July 2007, Slimane did not renew his contract at Dior Homme. Discussions about funding Slimane's own label failed. Slimane stated he did not want to lose control of his name and management of his own brand. He returned to fashion and portrait photography. In March 2011, following John Galliano's dismissal from Dior, Slimane was linked with the creative director position. In March 2012, Yves Saint Laurent and its parent company PPR announced that Slimane would replace Stefano Pilati as creative director. He based his creative studio in Los Angeles rather than the brand's Paris headquarters. In April 2016, Anthony Vaccarello succeeded Slimane as creative director for Yves Saint Laurent. In January 2018, LVMH announced that Slimane would become creative director at Céline. Under Slimane's direction, the brand dropped the French accent, becoming Celine. In April 2018, Slimane won more than €8 million in a lawsuit against Kering after he was paid €667,000 instead of €10 million for his non-compete clause. In January 2019, Slimane presented his first stand-alone menswear show for Celine. In December 2019, he selected TikToker Noen Eubanks as the face of Celine's next line. In July 2020, Slimane presented his men's spring-summer 2021 collection in a video shot at the Circuit Paul Ricard in France during confinement. Beginning in 2021, he presented his collections outside the official Paris ready-to-wear calendar in short film format, filmed at locations including the Château de Chambord, the Baie des Anges in Nice, the Hôtel de la Marine in Paris, the Wiltern in Los Angeles, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris, and the Mojave Desert. In April 2021, Slimane presented his fall-winter 2021 women's collection in a video shot at the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte. On 26 June 2022, Slimane showed his spring-summer 2023 collection for Celine at the Palais de Tokyo, the same location where he presented his autumn-winter collection for Dior Homme twenty years earlier. Published notes accompanying the show quote him as saying he "wanted to pay tribute to the institution and remember this moment in [his] menswear reform." In October 2024, he exited Celine.

In 2004, while overseeing Dior Homme collections, Slimane created a private collection of colognes. The collection included three colognes: Cologne Blanche, Eau Noire and Bois d'Argent. Slimane designed the bottles and changed the Dior logo typography to uppercase letters. The collection was distributed exclusively through Maison Christian Dior boutiques. These were Dior's first colognes. In 2005, following the launch of the Collection Privée Christian Dior, Slimane collaborated with perfumer Olivier Polge to create Dior Homme, a fragrance centered on iris. He designed the bottle and directed the advertising campaign. In 2006, he created Dior Homme Dermo System, a line of six skincare products.

In 2019, as artistic director of Celine, Slimane created Celine Haute Parfumerie, a collection of 11 fragrances. Two fragrances, "Rimbaud" and "Bois Dormant", were released later. He opened boutiques dedicated to the Haute Parfumerie collection on Rue Saint-Honoré, at Le Bon Marché in Paris, and at Harrods in London. These were Celine's first perfumes since 1964. Slimane designed the bottles and created the fragrance names. The names came from a scent journal he kept. The collection is unisex. In 2021, Slimane launched a line of scented candles. In April 2024, Slimane created Zouzou, the twelfth fragrance in the Haute Parfumerie collection. As of 2024, the Haute Parfumerie collection comprised 12 fragrances. Nine are intended for daytime wear (Parade, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Cologne Française, La Peau Nue, Zouzou, Rimbaud, Bois Dormant and Eau de Californie), while three are designed for evening (Reptile, Black Tie and Nightclubbing).

In March 2024, Celine announced the launch of "Celine Beauty", the house's first cosmetics line, under the direction of Slimane. Celine Beauty includes the lipstick "Rouge Triomphe" (released in autumn 2024), the first shade in a collection of fifteen announced in January 2025.

2004 – Berlin at Kunstwerke, Berlin 2004 – Berlin at MOMA/PS1, New York 2004 – Berlin at Koyanagi Gallery, Tokyo 2004 – Stage at Almine Rech Gallery, Paris 2005 – Robert Mapplethorpe curated by Hedi Slimane, at Thaddeus Ropac Gallery, Paris 2005 – Thank You For The Music group show, Spruth Magers Gallery, Munich 2006 – As Tears Go By at Almine Rech Gallery, Paris 2006 – I Love My Scene group show curated by Jose Freire, Mary Boone Gallery, New York 2006 – Portrait of A Performer at Galerie Gmurzynska, Zurich 2007 – Costa Da Caparica at Ellipse Foundation, Lisbon 2007 – Sweet Bird of Youth group show curated by Hedi Slimane at Arndt and Partner, Berlin 2007 – Young American at Foam Museum, Amsterdam 2007 – Perfect Stranger at Almine Rech Gallery, Paris 2008 – MUSAC Museum for Contemporary Art, Leon, Spain 2011 – Fragments Americana at Almine Rech Gallery, Brussels 2011 – California Dreamin, Myths and Legends of Los Angeles group show curated by Hedi Slimane, Almine Rech Gallery, Paris 2011 – California Song at MOCA, Los Angeles 2014 – SONIC at The Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent, Paris