FASHION Magazine
-
Endless Summer: Why so many designers are inspired by the California dream
Right: Rodarte Spring 2014 shot by Peter Stigter See the California inspiration on the runway »
At the end of part 1 of On the Road, Jack Kerouac’s 1957 novel about freedom, self-discovery and the American experience, Sal Paradise—a desperately bored and mildly depressed writer who sets off from New York City in search of adventure and inspiration out West—arrives in Hollywood by bus on a dusty autumn morning. Having abandoned the East of his youth along with a sorry half-written manuscript, he arrives, after weeks of dreamy anticipation, in the West of his future: the glittering California coast. “I looked greedily out the window: stucco houses and palms and drive-ins, the whole mad thing, the ragged promised land, the fantastic end of America.” For Paradise, Calif., is the ultimate American mecca—endlessly inspiring, always changing, forever new.
It’s a sentiment that still rings true 50-plus years later. In fashion, Hedi Slimane is the industry’s Pied Piper of California dreaming. The French designer has made Los Angeles his home, his muse and the subject of much of his work, from his 2011 photography exhibition, California Song, which explores Americana via L.A., to his recent collections for Saint Laurent, which have channelled everything from California grunge to 1980s Sunset Strip. “I secretly love that the common perception of L.A. is shallowness,” Slimane told Style.com in 2010. “From the counterculture’s heritage of the ’60s and ’70s to the rise of Silicon Valley in the ’80s, from the Hollywood dream machine to the music industry majors, from Californian art to architecture, healthy lifestyle and food, California does rule the village.”
Photography by Peter Stigter
Photography by Peter Stigter
Photography by Getty Images