People always want an explanation about everything and I cannot give it to them. Because I don't know myself. 'Why did you do a pair of pants like that?' I have no idea. I'm not going to have a 20-minute political discussion about the necessity for slashed, painted leather jeans. Basically, I don't know more than you.

Hedi Slimane

Fashion somehow, for me, is purely and happily irrational.

Hedi Slimane

Music has shaped men's fashion, and transposed in a playful and witty manner its riding or military heritage. It is difficult to figure out who leads, but music and fashion are connected genetically.

Hedi Slimane

The iPad needs to catch up with Flash before I put a hand on it.

Hedi Slimane

When I was designing, I had in mind Jimi Hendrix, and I could hardly find skinny indie black kids to wear my clothes. I remember one telling me he had to swap his skinny jeans for baggy ones in the subway before going home, so he wouldn't get in trouble in his neighborhood.

Hedi Slimane

Photography has always been about documentary, the depiction of the instant, a moment, sometimes a place. Each project is somehow an experimentation of a specific context or a character.

Hedi Slimane

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.

Hedi Slimane

I discovered Los Angeles in the late '90s. The city was not at its best at the time, but I fell for it right away. There is something almost haunted about it, a vibrant mythology I find rather inspiring.

Hedi Slimane

I like the ritual, the liturgy of a well-crafted, emotional fashion show. I will never be jaded with this side of fashion. The catwalk is pure anthropology, something like an esoteric encrypted parade. It can totally be replaced but it will be missed.

Hedi Slimane

An athletic man, or whatever you want to call him, will only look good in a very classic suit, a pair of classic jeans, athletic clothes or simply naked. Forget fashion. This is not going to happen, unless you want to look like a Chippendales dancer in designer clothes.

Hedi Slimane

David Bowie, for me, was the butchest guy in town. Jagger was like a truck driver.

Hedi Slimane

Just like zillions of children, album covers educated and informed me, and certainly did I later transpose organically, rather than by intent, those principles both in fashion design and photography.

Hedi Slimane

Hedi was and is still misspelled 'Heidi,' and my perception of genders ended up slightly out of focus from an early age.

Hedi Slimane

I like the idea of paradox, between the authentic fabrics and sophisticated shapes and between masculine and feminine. I'm not so much for sportswear. I think it's over.

Hedi Slimane

The framework of men's wear is so narrow, that when you play at the edges you get labeled.

Hedi Slimane

Men's fashion has a certain heaviness in the fabrics and construction. But also there is a heaviness in the mentality.

Hedi Slimane

I don't like the collusion between high fashion design and high street. You have to know where you stand. I belong to luxury fashion. That's what I've always felt and embraced. I like the best quality, the best fabrics and the most creative field in fashion. I will stay consistent. I belong to this world.

Hedi Slimane

Sex is not a subject in my photographs, or would only be if it had to do with romance, sometimes vulnerability. The photographs are quite clearly about happiness, or search for happiness.

Hedi Slimane

I always loved designing, but the context needs to be right, and have a positive perspective.

Hedi Slimane

I love California. It has such a strong contribution to the history of culture, and popular culture. For better and worse, of course. Even the worst can be interesting to some degree sometimes for somebody creative.

Hedi Slimane

With the rise of the Internet, fashion did become part of the global entertainment industry in the last ten years, and will follow the digital evolution of the music or film industry.

Hedi Slimane