Hedi Slimane: Intermission

Rating:
Summary: Avant Garde or Just a Good Way to Blow [money]?
Review: Alright, so I just bought this book by my all time idol, Hedi Slimane. Granted I didn't know a whole lot about it, but I love the guy, so I drop the [money] amyway. I just keep telling myself, its by Hedi, its going ot be excellent.

Imagine, then, my chagrin when I find that this is a book of curtains. CURTAINS. Not curtains designed by Mr. Slimane mind you, oh no. Curtains from hotel rooms that Hedi presumably stayed in. Curtains. The book is printed on heavy mylar/laminate, reaks of vinyl, and is bisected by slighlty unnerving pictures of the model on the cover, that is, they are the same picture that is featured on the cover, just reflected on each page as if by a fun house mirror.

And of course there are the curtains. Two Hundred and Eight pages of Just Curtains. Er, wait, there was one full page spread of Venetian Blinds, I stand corrected. Every now and then there's just a blank page, sometimes just a completely reflective one. I dunno, if you think its worth it, go a ahead and buy it.

Personal Opinion, this would have been slighlty more entertaining, and a little less pretentiously preposterous if it were called "Through a Whore's Eyes: Curtains from Hotel Rooms Around the World" At least then there's some intrigue implied, and not, "Hedi needed to get rid of a roll of film on the double." or if it should come with a shirt "Hedi Stayed in fancy hotel rooms with an instamatic and all I got was this 70 Dollar Smelly Coffee Table Accoutrement".

Rating:
Summary: Not a book on the quotidian.
Review: This is not to be mistaken for a book on Slimane's collections. It is, rather, a glimpse into what Slimane sees in his own environment. That he can take something as mundane as hotel curtains and Venetian blinds and render them in a seductive and physically palpable manner in a book is a reflection of his talent for design. The glamour of Slimane's collections and his life is captured in the production of the book itself, in the reflective, almost luscious materiality of the mylar pages coupled with the luxurious coloring of the photographs.

It is not for every individual, but perhaps those with the vision to "see."