- French fashion designer Hedi Slimane,

Models display creations by French designer Hedi Slimane at Paris fashion week, January 26, 2004....

Hedi Slimane back to "rock" Paris

French fashion designer Hedi Slimane, whose razor-thin black suits have changed the way men dress, is back in Paris but not on a catwalk.


Slimane, who abruptly parted ways with Dior Homme in March after a seven-year relationship, is staging a rock exhibit at Galerie Almine Rech in the Marais district through January.

Entitled "Perfect Stranger," it features Slimane's shots of fans and various audio and visual recordings he made during the Benicassim rock festival in Spain last July.

Like his previous photography books devoted to documenting a burgeoning London rock scene, Slimane's sleek minimalist black-and-white photos reflect his obsession with music and notably the fans.

"I spent one week, 24/7 shooting hundreds of fans...Fans and the appropriation mechanism are at the core of Perfect Stranger," Slimane told Reuters.

"Music is without a doubt key to building an identity or a sensibility," he added.

The Paris show is the first leg of a larger project Slimane is working on with Spain's MUSAC (The Castilla y Le�n Museum of Contemporary Art). There will be a show in Spain in May and a book.

ROCK RITUALS

Over the years, the 39-year-old Slimane has used his passion for photography and his connections to the rock world to pursue his quest for the mythology of rock, documenting rock concert rituals, the fans, and the whole infrastructure of a gig.

From Benicassim, Slimane brought back a fragment of Amy Winehouse's stage, an eerie film on the smoke machine The Klaxons used while performing, large-scale shots of fans mounted on crash barriers, and an installation of lamps, loudspeakers and floor glitter powder.

"My focus has always been on the codes, the signs, something like attempting a fragmentation or a semantic definition of the rock world, of a tradition based on a few codes that are being perpetually recycled," he said.

One of his first books of photographs "Stage" captured an emerging new rock scene in London and in America and in 2005 he released "London: The Birth Of A Cult," a book of photos inspired by the London scene and British rocker Pete Doherty.

"Since early 2000, I have been involved in the birth of a new rock scene. I documented, dressed, put on catwalks and sometimes produced many of its protagonists, particularly those from the English scene," he said.

"The start of Franz Ferdinand, the Libertines' troubles, the emergence of Pete Doherty...That was before rock was everywhere, on fashion runways and in advertising," Slimane recalled.

Slimane's passion for rock music is at the root of his creative process.

"Since I was a child, my whole life has revolved around music. It's often while listening to a song that ideas for my fashion collections formed," he said.

FASHION PASSION INTACT

It is often said that Slimane has revolutionized male fashion with his rock-inspired androgynous clothes made for and modeled by skinny young men.

His trademark slim black suits have been copied the world over. Slimane himself even became the subject of a song by Keys To The Streets Of Fear, a Boston punk band.

In turn, the bands that inspired him have often ended up wearing his clothes from new acts such Razorlight to old-timers like David Bowie or Mick Jagger.

In March, luxury goods giant LVMH did not renew Slimane's contract as artistic director for the Christian Dior menswear line, replacing him with Belgian designer Kris Van Assche.

The split was apparently ignited by Slimane's desire to launch his own label and branch into women's fashion, though LVMH chief Bernard Arnault offered to fund Slimane's line.

Slimane made a statement on his Web site at the time to explain his choice, saying he did not want to lose his creative freedom, sell his name and lose control of his own brand.

Since parting ways with Dior, Slimane has led a nomadic existence between Los Angeles, Berlin and Paris. This Summer he curated a group show entitled 'Sweet Bird of Youth' in Berlin with emerging New York artists and held a solo show at the Ellipse foundation in Lisbon.

Slimane said his future and his interest in fashion remain inextricably linked.

"My passion for fashion is absolutely intact...I need to be totally involved to again commit myself to a new fashion or perfume project," he said. "I feel totally free. I have not reclaimed my freedom. I never lost it."