For a short time few years in the waning the 20th century, a young Hedi Slimane was tabbed by Yves Saint Laurent’s partner, Pierre Berge, to revitalize the label’s Rive Gauche Homme line. The move was seen as something of an experiment. The eponymous Yves Saint Laurent designer had released only a few stray men’s pieces in his time at the label, and Hedi Slimane himself was a little known fashion assistant. His success in real-time at YSL was rather middling, and after a run from 1997-2000, he was replaced by Tom Ford, as the new owners of YSL, Kering, naturally installed their Gucci golden child.

In retrospect, however, Slimane’s work at YSL is integral to his development as one of the present century’s most important designers, and some of his most revealing work. We see the advent of the skinny silhouette he pioneered at Dior Homme, and his interplay of male sexuality and vulnerability which purveys through his finest work. The conditions of the era and the label empathized a much production runs that he would later have to manage at Dior. YSL was wading into uncharted water with menswear, and the late 1990s belong to an era just before streamlined mechanization in designer fashion production. This allows for some of Hedi Slimane’s most thoughtful and through work, with design touches and quality that would cease to be seen within his work as he developed into the ready-to-wear giant he is today.

These half-cut gloves feature a hand-done rounded seam, leaving the bottom half of the hand exposed. When discussing his work at the time, he noted, "everything I do is based on seduction.” Exposed skin was a natural motif for him to thus play with, as garments revealing parts of the body they typically do not invites the observer to imagine them further revealing more.

Condition: 8/10. Some aging to the leather

Tagged size: One-size