If you're looking for infinity, you'll find it harnessed on the third floor in Dover Street Market. Hedi Slimane's Saint Laurent collection – menswear, womenswear and accessories – is reflected to the hilt in a cabinet of dress-up geometry.
Appropriating techniques and materials from French Art Deco with Bauhaus influence, repetitive vitrines are constructed in poli mirror, brass and extra clear mirror, playing the House code of silver and gold in unison. It's the ultimate frame for Slimane's youth quake tailoring, leather jackets, suspended Paris heels and blue jeans, an item Monsieur Yves Saint Laurent had great regard for, quoting, "They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity – all I hope for in my clothes". This installation remains equally as potent empty of the ritualistic wardrobe.
It's not the first time Slimane has exhibited at Rei Kawakubo's original concept store, however, as the creative showcased his F System furniture project back in 2007, a series of artisan crafted loveseats and tables transposed – and disrupted – from historical silhouettes in stainless steel and ebony.
Mayfair's the hotspot where the impetus of other eras meets the future, it seems. All those mirrors make sure the romance bounces the right way.
A story in leather, lacquer, babycat, denim and pussy bows, Hedi Slimane’s first collection in five years takes a rock wardrobe and infuses it with the youth explosion that characterised Saint Laurent’s ready-to-wear line in the 60s, Rive Gauche. In many ways the tale here is one of genesis, as what the late Yves Saint Laurent did as the first couturier to propose luxury ready-to-wear with the spirit of the street, Hedi Slimane did from the late 90s to 2007, redefining menswear both in silhouette and attitude. Essentially, as Saint Laurent liberated women, Slimane did so for men.
Since 2007 the influential designer has concentrated on a parallel career in photography, introducing the monochrome illusive portrait – what the camera shouldn’t see – into contemporary culture. His images are charged with the ethos of what he began in fashion, demonstrating a talent for capturing the spirit of our time that goes beyond clothes, however sublime.
On his return to design, there is a notion of planets aligning. Slimane’s installation at Saint Laurent befits the wishes of both the late Monsieur Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berg, to whom the debut women’s catwalk show was dedicated.
As stores are reconceptualised under Saint Laurent’s original helvetica logo, Dazed heralds a new fashion epoch by heading to Stockholm to shoot a 2012 youthquake on a group of professional and street-cast models. Here we present an extended image edit from the magazine editorial and meet the boys from the shoot.
PhotographyFumi Nagasaka StylingRobbie Spencer GroomingSharin at Link Details ModelsAdam and Peder at Nisch Management, Daniel, Hugo, Kimie, Martin at Stockholmsgruppen Photographic AssistantHannah Richter Styling AssistantUlrika Lindqvist RetouchingColor One NYC Special Thanks ToJane Glandal, Meghan Scott, Hjalmar Klitse
All clothes Saint Laurent by Hedi Slimane SS13 menswear
The stories' lead protagonist, Hugo, soundtracked the film with his band Side Effects. Visit theirofficial Facebook page
