Fashion’s big re-shuffle

As a month of high-fashion draws to an end with yards of lace, cashmere and leather erupting lavishly off the Paris catwalks, the unavoidable fact is that a tornado of names is what belies the centre of its storm.

There has been an explosion in terms of change at the top of fashion this season, morphing the familiar horizon of creative designers as we know it into a completely new landscape. Fuelled by the rumour mill created by keen-eyed journalists anxious to pair-off displaced designers with prospective houses, such turbulence has been envisaged ever since the scandal involving John Galliano kicked-off nearly a year ago.

The biggest news to date: Hedi Slimane has replaced Stefano Pilati as the creative director at Yves Saint Laurent.

Late last week, after numerous mumblings, the French luxury house confirmed that Stefano Pilati would not be renewing his contract after this season. Although the house claimed in a statement that Pilati had been “instrumental in rebuilding and repositioning” the label, guiding it to become “a contemporary reference in high fashion”, Pilati’s tenure at YSL has not been without its bumps. In fact, it was widely speculated a couple of seasons back that Pilati would be replaced at the house since it emerged he had lost favour with the label’s chief executives, owing to the line’s accessories selling better than its clothes.

Yet having followed on from Tom Ford, Pilati’s 8 years at the house have been an overall success. Greatly concentrated on precision tailoring and luxurious fabrics, Pilati’s designs were sensual and seductive, with a heavy hint to the Parisian elegance Saint-Laurent himself had strived for, but which were somewhat lost amongst Ford’s sexually provocative pieces.

Hedi Slimane has replaced Stefano Pilati as the creative director at Yves Saint Laurent

In fact, Pilati’s last collection on Monday seemed almost prophetical. Elegant bare-backs, glittering chain mail dresses and leather wasp-waisted jackets; Pilati’s finale infused darkened sincerity with a sparkle of floral romance, as if hinting that he would emerge from the thicket of changeovers as a bloom of freshness.

But alas, before Pilati has managed to reveal his own future plans, the heads of YSL validated strong rumours by naming Hedi Slimane as the house’s new creative director.

For those out-of-the-know, Hedi Slimane is nothing less than a fashion legend in his own right. Having held a cult following whilst he was creative director at Dior Homme in the 2000s, and known for his introduction of the super-skinny silhouette (i.e. the driving force behind the male skinny jeans revolution); Slimane was, and still is, the menswear designer of our time. In fact, Chanel’s own fashion mogul Karl Lagerfeld puts Slimane’s suits down as the reason he lost a remarkable amount of weight in 2001.

This new appointment of Slimane to YSL is nothing short of a homecoming given that he led their menswear designs in the late 90s, yet it is still a big jump for the house. Not only will this be the start of Slimane’s career in womenswear, it is photography he has dedicated himself to these past 5 years, and so understandably, the fashion world watches on with high expectations and even higher tensions. No doubt YSL’s show next season will be one of the most highly anticipated.

From one reinstatement to another, the headline news from Milan fashion week was that Jil Sander would be making a return to her eponymous label 40 years after she founded it, following the release that Raf Simons would be leaving his post at the helm of the house this season.

Having recently completed his highly acclaimed ‘couture trilogy’ for the label, Raf Simons’ farewell show was a breathtakingly simple one. With a flow of petal pink and ivory coats daintily clutched at the chest, which morphed into a procession of shiny black PVC and leather dresses, Simons’ final parade brought tears into the eyes of those that watched. Heralded as his best collection yet, Simons departed to a standing ovation and an encore; it was a monumental end to his majestic journey of influential simplicity with the house.

Given the influx of newly displaced designers, as well as the prospect of further reshuffling, a waterfall of potential candidates has cascaded the fashion blogosphere to try and answer its golden question: Who will be the new creative director at Christian Dior?

Having ruled out Riccardo Tisci and Azzedine Alaïa last season, London designer Christopher Kane became the center of speculation last week following his collaboration with Donatella Versace on a Camden-inspired acidic-tie-dye collection for the diffusion line Versus.

Yet as soon as Kane had ruled himself out of the race, the rumour mill turned to Haider Ackermann, another of fashion’s most talented new designers, after it was reported that a bouquet of flowers had been sent to Dior’s HQ earlier this week with a congratulatory message for him. This has since sent editors and bloggers alike into a flurry, as not only was Ackermann popularly conceived to be “too edgy” for the legendary label, it is well known that Karl Lagerfeld has named Ackermann as his preferred replacement at rival French house Chanel.

Inevitably, following the Louis Vuitton show on Wednesday, Marc Jacobs also re-entered the scene despite stating, “I am at Vuitton, and I am very happy there” himself last year. Add onto this rumours that Raf Simons or Stefano Pilati may make Dior (or even Louis Vuitton) their new home, as well as the sweet sound that Galliano himself may return to the throne, and the torrents currently underlying the fashion world are fast becoming as intricate as a political power swap.

Its all change at the top of fashion as designers and houses alike line up for a big game of musical chairs, yet we must remember that it is the CEOs who are playing God. This leaves the creative visionaries in second place behind the money jiggling of chief executives, and unfortunately, such expressively fragile imaginations have a tendency to get caught up and swallowed in whirls of media attention and unwarranted pressure. So as fun as this game of Guess Who is, let’s hope for the benefit of all that this storm is coming to an end.