YSL confirms Hedi Slimane as new creative director

Hedi Slimane, a former designer for Dior Homme is to take over as creative director at Yves Saint Laurent, YSL and its parent company PPR confirmed on Wednesday.

Slimane is "named creative and image director" and "will take on artistic responsibility for the brand and all the collections.

In parallel with his new job, he will continue his career as a photographer," a joint statement said.

The announcement, which confirmed what industry sources told AFP in February, came on the last day of Paris Fashion Week.

It is Slimane's second stint at the legendary fashion house, having worked there in the late 1990s as head of the menswear collection.

Slimane, whose father is Tunisian and mother Italian, is returning to the fashion industry after several years away.

He has been based in Los Angeles during an extended sabbatical from the fashion world, working mainly in photography. A lot of his work is in black and white -- and much of it features the rock milieu.

He is still only 43, having made his mark at Christian Dior between 2000 and 2007, where he is generally acknowledged to have revolutionised menswear.

During his time there, he made Dior Homme each season's must-see show.

A rock fan and artist, Slimane drove an androgynous look of skinny suits and tight low trousers that found its imitators not just in the fashion world but spread into the rock world that so fascinates him.

Stars Mick Jagger and Pete Doherty have gone on stage in Dior Homme, while designer Jean-Paul Gaultier once said he could not do better than Slimane.

Even the legendary Karl Lagerfeld shed some 45 kilos (90 pounds) to be able to slide into a pencil-thin Slimane suit.

The look Slimane developed was much copied by mass-market designers across the world and even influenced the design of women's clothes.

At the height of his fame, some young followers even adopted Slimane's distinctive Tintin-like quiff.