I’ll never forget the day I bought my first shirt at Dior Homme. It was a totally transcendental experience. These were the days of Hedi Slimane, the hottest menswear designer on the planet. I would often go to the New York boutique just to see Hedi’s pieces in person. I was too poor to afford anything, and I didn’t have a credit card to max out. If I save, I thought, I could buy that $4,000 leather jacket. But even by the time I could save enough, we would already be beyond that season. Then, of course, Slimane left Dior so, so I had to act fast or miss out.

When I bought that shirt, I felt like I was taking a piece of Hedi home with me. I thought that the right people would see the shirt and know that I was wearing Dior. That I, too, was fabulous. What I’m finding in my dissertation research on performances of glamour and luxury is that this is a real experience – a real feeling that most people lust after, one that’s easier to achieve than ever before.

Today, I was doing some research and I came across a fascinating quip by Bernard Arnault – the overlord of LVMH Moet Hennesey Louis Vuitton, the largest luxury conglomerate in the world. Arnault said that luxury products wield so much power on us that we feel as if we “have to buy it. You must buy it, in fact, or else you won’t be in the moment. You will be left behind.”

And that completely sums up how I felt when I bought that little Dior shirt, or why I felt like it was a matter of life or death that I find a way to drop $3,000 on a leather jacket I couldn’t afford.

This is how the luxury industry works, how they suck us in. They put young, avant garde, sexy designers at the head of stodgy old fashion houses to create excitement, to generate the buzz, to renew the brand. Sex always sells. Then they come at us with “cheap” perfumes, watches, handbags, and t-shirts – things that most everyone with a job or moderate credit limit can afford. The Alexander Wang “Coco” bag sells out before you finish saying the designers name. Prada and Dior Homme are two of my favorite colognes, at about $65 a pop. This is the democratization of luxury.

In Dana Thomas’ book, Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, the author laments this democratization and the shifting of true luxury away from specialized service and customization to the mass. But is that really such a bad thing? Is it bad that more people now have access to the dream of luxury? Especially now that the “luxury experience” is really everywhere, from Whole Foods to Rodarte for H&M. Forget capitalism; we are in an age of total luxury.

What I’m really interested in is the idea of “sold-outness,” and how that generates buzz for a particular purse or shoe, but also as an impulse that works on us as shoppers. Just what will we do to get our hands on a coveted “Birkin” bag? If ever you were skeptical about the importance of spectacular appearances, take a look at this: in 2009, Louis Vuitton clocked in as the 29th most valuable brand in the world, sandwiched between AT&T and HSBC.

Think about it: the top labels on the list include banks, communications firms – necessities, in other words. One of the questions I’m invested in with my research is what it means for a luxury fashion label – the most obvious of the labels at that – to be so highly ranked.

]]> http://slapshotgarbo.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/its-the-23rd/ Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:43:15 +0000 slapshotgarbo http://slapshotgarbo.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/its-the-23rd/

I thought this photography by Hedi Slimane would be appropriate before the day was done.

Formichetti, Van Sant, Haring, Clark, Warhol, Korine, Mapplethrope, Slimane, Trevelyan, & Jarman

(UK) I had a chat with one of my favorite artist right now, the über sexy Jaiden rVa James cult Menswear label designer shows naiveboy.com readers a glimpse on the people who inspires him. Two American painters, four American filmmakers and one British, one fashion director and his assistant, an American photographer and a Tunisian-French photographer. Ladies and gentlemen enjoy the scrumptious visual feast in the mind of designer Jaiden Jeremy James.

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1. Keith Haring
(American artist and social activist)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Haring

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2. Gus Van Sant
(American film director, screenwriter, photographer, musician, and author)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gus_Van_Sant

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3. Andy Warhol
(American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Warhol

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4. Nicola Formichetti
(British fashion director, editor, and wardrobe stylist)
http://www.nicolaformichetti.com/

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5. Harmony Korine
(American film director, producer, screenwriter, and author)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony_Korine

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6. Anna Trevelyan
(British wardrobe stylist and Nicola Formichetti’s assistant)
http://annatrevelyan.blogspot.com/

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7. Larry Clark
(American film director, photographer, writer and film producer)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Clark

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8. Robert Mapplethrope
(American photographer)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mapplethorpe

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9. Hedi Slimane
(Tunisian-French fashion designer and photographer)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedi_Slimane

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10. Derek Jarman
(English film director, stage designer, artist, and writer)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_Jarman

http://jaidenjames.blogspot.com/

Credit

A new, occasional feature: classic flavours-of-the moment.

Hedi Slimane, previous designer for Christian Dior, was my FOTM in August 2006.

(from an email to my best friends entitled ‘Randolph Duke for Halston…was my other favourite childhood designer):

y, hedi slimane originated your haircut.  h.s. is the designer of dior homme (r. wainwright, whose new album is coming out next year!!!!!!!, is wearing d.h. by h.s. on the cover of interview)….dior homme is hands-down my favourite menswear…i would put all of my favourite men in dior homme (skinny pants, skinny ties, skinny jackets).s, franz ferdinand are devotees of dior homme as are orlando bloom and brad pitt.  apparently, he likes to cast skinny male models off the street….y, f, are you up for this? i was reading vanity fair yesterday, the best dressed issue, and i practically flipped out of my skin there was hedi slimane… i mean, honestly, i didn’t think he really existed or that he was young…i thought he was some karl lagerfeld guy…tres intriguing…so i have taken a break from obsessive googling of h.s. to write this email.  (seriously, prince ernst of hanover, best dressed?)

2 days later:

my hedi slimane fixation is starting to affect my work.  also my love of americanos.

the next day, in a email describing my typical day, entitled ‘atelier’:

2:00pm…l has come in [to my office] for lunch…try to find the details magazine profile of hedi slimane on google….check macy’s for intriguing blackwear….show disgust at ralph lauren’s boxy aesthetic at macy’s

7:30pm-.drive to —— walking track……..chat with mom for a few hundred yards, then begin to outpace her, listen to interpol’s antics, call —- and leave message, drink aforementioned seltzer, work on couture and ready-to-wear collections, decide to make a simple skirt with gorgeous lining, survey black options in my wardrobe, decide i need more shirts, imagine what hedi slimane’s purported women’s line might look like, think about what —- and i talked about, walk 2 miles…

a day later:

i’ve been woefully occupied by work, and still trying to figure out the proper pronounciation of “hedi”…..egads

two days after that:

also i was reading this article about hedi slimane (whose name is pronounced “edi sli-mahn” apparently…since i am american, i think i could americanize it to “hedi”….which is tres rock star)…oh it was “the new yorker” and the reporter remarked that HS looked like “the apotheosis of hedi-ness” and so i’ve been thinking about what “the apotheosis of Julian K.-ness” would be…my flexibility is up in yoga….i can put my heels down on the first pass in down dog, and i did shoulderstand twice this week

and

ps…the official hedi song is “this boy” by franz ferdinand

I was supposed to write this email finally explaining all the reasons why I love Hedi Slimane, and I’ll definitely get to that. I mean, seriously, when one starts getting sent HS care packages, well…

(it’s true; my gay best friend [GBF] mailed me an article from that fall’s Fashion Rocks with Hedi and Phoenix.)

GBF got so into Hedi that he was still talking about Hedi a month later, and I was just like, ‘wtf? hedi’s over.’ GBF also bought a pair of Dior jeans so…yeah, he definitely took it to the next level.

Well, the question still is: why did I love Hedi so much? Not to give anything away, but people who can pursue two interests successfully, multi-talented sincere people–they tend to intrigue me, if, as it always is with classic FOTMs,the timing is right and I identify with them or their values. Now I’m not a skinny gay Tunisian-French (Tunisia forever!) fashion designer who moonlights in photography, but (from emails)…

Hedi (in the Independent, 2004, bout his clothes): “No, it’s not meant to be sexy. I don’t like this idea of exhibitionism. Tarty. No, no, no. I like more the idea of attraction.”

and

Hedi again: “Yes, I had a happy childhood. It was very isolated – I was a really isolated kid. I was just like that.” A pause, and then he adds, “Actually, I was bored with being a child. I just couldn’t stand it. I had to be with grown- ups. Now, it’s fantastic, but then, I was bored and I couldn’t wait to do thing” (who does that sound like?)

also:

i don’t know why i always have the impulse to be completely unexpected…contrarian, even.  i really don’t like to be completely known. i love the element of surprise, but i hate being surprised.  i also can’t wait to wear plum nail polish….i know that much of this emphasis on fashion is a way to destress and be creative….

don’t forget:

[at a historical library with GBF] —- asked us what our interests were, and i said we were interested in fashion, so she unlocked the costume design cabinet for us, and pulled out a Vogue book and also some plates from the early 1900s (women would view the plates, and then have their dressmakers make up the dresses)…..i said that i was interested in learning more about construction and design, and she gave me the contact info of their program director, who in a previous life was a hat designer….

You know, this is all from the girl who sketched dress designs during sermons and watched ‘Style with Elsa Klensch’ religiously.

For further Hedi reference: A Giddy American Meets Hedi in the Grocery Store

Robert Pattinson (de perfecto!) pelo nosso amado Hedi Slimane é demais pra minha cabeça.

(AnOther Man #9)

Via: thefashionspot.com.

Jeps, så sidder man her i stage 7 og hygger med de andre modeller .. Der er 4, så det er jo ret cool ..

Indtil videre har jeg ikke været i gang, men det kommer nok snart .. Der er dog masser af mad, the, kaffe og vand, så jeg vil læne mig tilbage med en chai, og ellers se hvor dagen bringer mig hen .. Jeg må vist ikke tage nogle billeder af stedet så det er jo lidt ærgerligt, men jeg kan vel give en lille forklaring på det senere til jer ..

Men yes, nu il jeg kick back og chille lidt med de andre!

- Mikkel

Lady Gaga made quite the appearance at the Accessories Council of Excellence Awards on Monday. She was there as the recipient of the Stylemaker award. Presented by Marc Jacobs, she came onto stage through a cloud of talcum powder she flung ahead of herself. She gave a ten minute speech mentioning Jacobs, Alenxander McQueen, Stephan Gan, David Lachapelle and Hedi Slimane as her supporters. Also, Lady Gaga announced that the “House of Gaga is not an economy,” and that we shouldn’t expect a line. Was about a perfume though?

Natalia Vodianova looks effortlessly gorgeous.

photos by Hedi Slimane for V magazine

photos via fashiongonerogue

We detagged and cleaned up the  pic of Robert Pattinson from BHMAMEN Magazine that we posted yesterday.

Hedi Slimane

Well, I guess Hedi Slimane has new interesting pages for his fashion diary. And supermodel Natalia Vodianova was the object inspirations of hedi. Brilliant shoot.

• Photography: Hedi Slimane

Bit of a boring shoot IMO, plus i’m not a fan of Natalia.Shot by Hedi Slimane.

As part of my inescapable descent towards menswear adoration, I have slowly been obsessed with this latest Prada ad campaign, the hardness and shiny finish of studs on wool, and the hypnotising and mysterious look of that peculiar ephebe, a model that Hedi apparently found in Coachella. Oh, and that Slimane touch, on the soft black and white picture gives this campaign a modern yet timeless aura, and makes the whole collection beyond covetable – unlike the womenswear ads. Not to mention the omnipresent trend of studs, sequins, metal and other embellishments. A modern aesthetics right on trends for the 2010 men. Am I weird, or do you agree?

Prada Avertising Campaign, AW 09. Photographer: Hedi Slimane.

photo by hedi slimane

I feel like this portrait of Daria by Hedi Slimane is pretty close to the Platonic ideal of casual beauty that all things like Gap ads and so on shoot for. I never really noticed before quite how beautiful her face is. Obviously I was aware that she is beautiful, but it had not really struck me until now.The contrast against the sloppy clothing really brings it out. Hedi is usually able to bring out new details from his subjects, though, so this revelation ought to come as no suprise. I’m really quite fond of this photograph.

Daria Werbowy by Hedi Slimane for Paris Vogue August 2007.

[via]

INTRODUCING disconcert is the new photo series that just posted Hedi Slimane on its website. 40 photos revealing once again the attraction of Hedi Slimane for music, passionate and dreamy youth. With Alex Needham (former NME and Music Editor of The Guardian), they have followed two young Londoners musicians -Alan and Richard Pilkington Trust – whom dream only for the moment they’ll play and go on tour. Started some years ago and published initially in V Magazine, Rock Diary by Hedi Slimane is a story that allows him -and he likes it-to discover emerging rock bands.

HediSlimane.com