From The Straits Times    |

The “banal rivalry” between Hedi Slimane and Raf Simons at Paris Fashion Week has been slammed by a Saint Laurent boss.

Hedi was confirmed as the new creative director of Yves Saint Laurent in March this year, with one of his first acts in the position to rebrand the company.

Raf landed the same position at Christian Dior earlier this year, following the dismissal of shamed designer John Galliano in 2011.

With the two men showing their first collections for their respective fashion houses at the Spring/Summer 13 Paris Fashion Week, it was obvious that comparisons would be drawn. While Raf’s offering was praised by critics, Hedi’s didn’t fare so well.

Saint Laurent Chief Executive Officer Paul Deneve is furious about the coverage of the two debuts.

“To caricature the arrival of Hedi Slimane at Yves Saint Laurent to a banal rivalry with another house or designer encourages people to relegate fashion to a sideshow rather than the main event,” he said in an open letter to WWD.

“In particular, it obscures what is a much richer and I think more important moment in the fashion industry. Hedi’s choice to join YSL was motivated by a very clear vision for the house, which means round-the-clock work for him and all my teams to turn that vision into a reality for all to see and enjoy.”

It’s not just the effect of the company Paul works for that has the fashion boss angry. He feels the coverage was unfair to all the other designers who had worked hard to get collections ready for the biannual date in the style calendar.

“It was about so much more than Hedi vs. Raf,” he insisted, adding it only served to “reduce the collective talent of all designers showing in Paris to a so-called duel between two fashion houses and two men.”

Hedi has previously hit out at the criticism against him, taking particular aim at The New York Times’ journalist Cathy Horyn. She wasn’t a fan of his Spring/Summer 13 line and also blogged about not receiving an invite to the show – which she claims was because of a negative review she gave Hedi in 2004.

“Miss Horyn is a schoolyard bully and also a little bit of a stand-up comedian,” Slimane wrote on Twitter. “I also often hear that her sense of style is seriously challenged, providing that she is meant to be an authority in the village.”

He also claimed Cathy favoured Raf’s Dior collection. – COVER MEDIA